Dominoes
by melibelly
Summary: pre. ootp. You may feel alone, Harry but humans are much like the muggle game dominoe's if one falls we all fall. we depend on each other.
1. stand up

Warning: this story deals with some small themes of abuse and has some bad language that may be offensive.

Warning #2: I don't have a beta and I don't plan on getting one. It is just faster and simpler to type and review it myself. I try to check my grammer asmuch as possible but there is still a fair few mistakes. If you have lots of problems with that please just don't read or don't flame me about it.

disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter one: stand up

It had been three weeks since Harry Potter had piled himself into the backseat of his uncle's car and driven away from platform 9 3/4. While the boy in the smallest bedroom struggled to come to grips with the changes that where taking place, no doubt right at this moment, Privet Drive remained completely the same. Aunt Petunia was as much a gossip as the last 13 years of Harry's life. Vernon Dursley still liked his morning coffee with two spoons of sugar, no cream. And the shuddery in front of each house remained clipped to perfection in some sort of silent competition among the neighbors.

But Harry Potter was all to aware of the changes taking place miles away. His head ached in a constant pulsing way that could not be helped by any amount of Tylenol. Every night in his dreams he re-visited the moment at the end of his fourth year when evil had been reborn and innocence had been killed. Occasionally he saw things so vivid as he slept that he was positive the events where actually taking place as he viewed them.

That's what Harry found himself doing more often: viewing, watching, most of the time in amazement, at the extreme evil of Voldemort and at the extreme naivete of the citizens of Little Whinging Surrey. Life had remained so completely the same, so normal it was painful. However there was one thing on privet drive that had changed, which proved in and of itself that change and Privet Drive was not necessarily a good thing, no matter how hard harry found himself wishing for it.

Dudley Dursley had undergone a complete makeover. The boy that had formerly sported four chins was now bulky due to pure bulging muscles. Over the past school year he had discovered a love for boxing that had interested him enough get him to do physical activity. Harry called it a miracle. Dudley's new appearance also came with a new personality. Because of his status as boxing champion as well as a girlfriend his arrogance had risen to new heights. Over the past few years it seemed that Dudley's confidence had come down to a manageable level. It appeared that he had undergone some a bit of verbal abuse from his peers due to his obesity and less that average grades. However, now that he had made his way up the social standing into "popular", due to his newly talent, Harry's cousins cockiness has come back worse than every before. His insults now took a tone of rubbing in peoples faces how great he was and the kids that had bullied him horribly before had been beat up several times. Petunia's dinky duddydums had grown up, even though she seemed oblivious to the change. Harry had smelt alcohol and cigarette smoke on Dudley's breath several times already this summer. It was really quite astounding the things that Dudley's gang got away with, Harry almost admired them for it. They routinely beat up the primary school kids in the area, Harry had suspicions that they had done several graffiti drawings that had appeared around town that summer and knew that Dudley had shoplifted a few times (a fact he was no above bragging about). Along with Dudley's on top of the world, above the rules, indestructible type of attitude had came the re-indulgence of "Harry hunting." Dudley seemed to have forgotten every fear he had previously possessed of magic and happily beat up his cousin every few days. No matter how much Harry hated to admit it, Dudley had become a good fighter and he had found himself smarting from bruises and sprains after almost every encounter with the gang.

That was how Harry found himself wandering the streets on a gloomy summer day glancing around every so often to avoid the "Drivers" as they now called themselves, because they all lived along the long street of Privet Drive. Harry thought the name was particularly stupid, especially because living along the white picket suburban street of Privet Drive was not exactly gangsta.

Harry allowed his mind to wonder as he walked along the familiar streets. It had been four days since he had last heard from his best friends Ron and Hermione. In past years this might have worried him but this year he couldn't bring himself to care. His friends where unable to pass information on the actions of Voldemort, even though he was sure the Weasleys where in on whatever counter-Voldemort plan Dumbledore had put into action. Harry found it didn't really matter. He had enough of a gist of the goings on of Voldemort from his almost nightly updates of the death eater meetings. He knew that Voldemort was gathering his supporters, taking in his settings and leaning about current happenings. This was frighteningly familiar to what Dumbledore was doing. Whenever he heard something of minor importance he communicated it into the letters to his friends, as best he could in code.

His birthday was in a week and a half, if this summer followed the pattern of the ones previous he would be leaving soon. He could only hope. After the third task Harry had been numb for awhile but now he was finally starting to feel again and the truth was that he couldn't wait to see a friendly face. Dudley had done nothing but make fun of him mercilessly once he had heard harry yelling out Cedric's name in his sleep at the beginning of the summer. Aunt Petunia had upped the chore list the more he woke them, which only resulted in Harry being tired with more work to do. His feelings about the excessive chores kept flip-flopping between being glad he had something to do and wanting to do nothing. He seemed to have lost all control of his emotions as they rushed back to his previously shocked state that he was more confused and lost than ever. Worry, guilt, anger, embarrassment and fear whirled around in his head until it was enough to drive him mad. The problems he had with his relative sometimes seemed like the worst thing that could possibly be. Then he would remember the battle to come and his relations would fade once again into a minor annoyance. Everything was so mixed up that the only thing he was sure of was that he wanted to escape to a private island with his friends and never have to think about anything ever again. But that would never happen and with only a vague hope of when he was leaving he could only pray that everyone he cared about (including himself) lived another year.

Harry shook his head and tried to think about nothing, an impossible task, before glancing around again to look for Dudley's gang. It was just his luck, he had walked right to them and he could make out the bulky from of Dudley a few feet up the road. But they didn't seem to notice him, which was strange. He squinted his eyes and upon closer inspection could see a small boy, roughly in the middle of the group being pushed around. He stood there for a second evaluating his options before giving up with a sigh and walking determinedly forward. He was too much of a Gryffindor to protect his own hide, even though he new he would be hating himself for his decision later.

As he walked closer he was able to recognize the boy who had been chosen for entertainment that day. His name was Mark Evans, and Harry couldn't really remember if he was 10 or11, but age didn't matter when you took in the petite size of him. Mark didn't even make it to Dudley's shoulder and compared to the teens surrounding him he was a stick of a thing. It made Harry's stomach churn.

"How about we make it two to six to even out the odds." He said loudly and watched as they all froze on the spot.

Dudley turned and sneered at his cousin. "You don't stand a chance, Potter."

In the shadow of his cousin harry could make out Mark gingerly standing up. For a moment he was transported back in time to when he had been in the middle of a circle of far more experienced fighters with no chose but to be mocked as his feelings of helplessness steadily grew. He shook off the memory and regarded his cousin coolly. "Oh I don't know, I reckon me and Mark have more brains in our pinky fingers then the rest of you put together."

This had exactly the reaction he was hoping for as they all turned to him, completely forgetting the previous target. Harry had just enough time to mouth "get out of here" to Mark before the punched landed and his glasses went flying. He cursed under his breath. He knew they weren't broken, ever since second year they had had an unbreakable charm on them, but that didn't change the fact that it was much easier to fight back when you could see the person throwing the punches. It was an underhanded, sneaky trick that Dudley had been using since their primary school days, since he knew that harry was blind as a bat with out the darned things. Dudley would have made a good Slytherin…on second thought maybe he wasn't clever enough for even the snakes…not that Crabbe and Goyle had any brain cells.

For not the first time Harry wished that he were old enough to use magic. Just picturing their reaction to a good jelly legs jinx made him almost cackle with glee. However even if he were old enough to blast them to oblivion he knew it would be illegal to do so in front of so many muggles. Pity really.

Harry fought back as well as he could and luckily they got board of him quickly, he supposed that they had beaten him up so many times in the past few weeks that he was to easy a target.

He couldn't suppress a small smile of triumph at the enraged cry form the group when they found out Mark Evans was no where to be seen.

As he heard them walk away he began the slow process of trying to find his glasses. He sighed when he imagined how far they could have gone depending on where they where hit and Bitterly he thought about how stupid he must look crawling around on his hands and knees by the side of the road.

"These them?"

Harry looked up at the fuzzy blob holding out something to him. He smiled his thanks and took his glasses from the figure. As the world came back into focus he realized it was Mark Evans.

"I hid in the bushes over there." He pointed vaguely off the to side. "I wanted to thank you."

"Erm…No problem, I'm used to Dudley being an idiot. Thanks for getting my glasses."

Mark shrugged. "Least I could do. It's amazing they didn't break."

"Yeah amazing."

"You know there's a lot of rumors about you, that you go to St. Brutus's and…other stuff but you're really not that bad."

Harry wasn't really sure if that was a compliment or an insult but he decided to treat it as the better of the two. "Thanks…look I better get going, I have about a million chores to do when I get home. You should go home to, they'll be looking for you."

Mark nodded. "Thanks again, everyone's really afraid to get on the Drivers bad side."

Harry had to hold back the laugh that wanted to escape from the tremor of fear he heard as Mark said "Drivers." If they thought Dudley was bad…

"Right then," said Harry "bye."

As he walked back towards number four he started to assess the damage. Definitely a black eye, several bruises on his torso, sore wrist and man was his head pounding. Lovely.

His somewhat rumpled state earned no sympathy from his aunt who only snapped at him to clean up before pointing to the list of chores that had yet to be completed.

Harry's uncle Vernon came home from work that day pleased as punch about getting a dinner date with a high profile client.

"If I get this deal," he said. "A promotion could be in the close future."

Petunia smiled and pilled more food on her son and husbands plates. "That's wonderful Vernon. When did you plan the dinner for? Will we be hosting?"

"Tomorrow night." Upon seeing his wife's face pale sufficiently at the task of preparing an unforgettable meal in one short day he rushed to re-assure her. "Where going to that fancy place up near the theater…le cue de cheval…wouldn't want them coming here after what happened last time."

The table turned as one to glare at Harry who did his best to pretend he hadn't noticed. Dudley even stopped eating to wait for the almost inevitable lecture to his cousin, but even the memory of Harry's second year couldn't bring Vernon down and he continued eating his meatloaf without saying a word.

The next day started off badly and only seemed to be getting worse. Harry woke up at 3am from a nightmare and was unsuccessful at getting back to sleep. He lay in bed staring up at the shadows on the ceiling and imagining the deaths of everyone he loved, until the nock at the door. When his Aunt Petunia ordered him to get up and cook a "big breakfast for Vernon's big day" it was almost a relief. Almost being the key word. Today was one of those days he wished he could do nothing more that sulk in his misery.

As he glanced at his reflection in the bathroom mirror on the way to the kitchen he realized he looked at bad as he felt. Big bags lay under one eye and the other was cover in a swollen, purple bruise from the fight with Dudley the day before. His cheeks were raw red from sunburn and the skin was peeling. Feeling he had nothing to loose in the looks department he put on his worst pair of jeans and an over sized T-shirt.

Dudley made snide comments about his looks all through breakfast and stuffed himself silly so that Harry wouldn't be able to have any bacon.

Harry started on his list of chores right away. He had a hard time Trying to get his aching and tired muscle's to cooperate with motion of any sort. Dudley watched T.V while Harry dusted the bookshelf. Finding it more and more difficult not to be jealous of his cousin.

Around 11am Aunt Petunia left for a manicure and to shop for a new dress. Within the hour Dudley's girlfriend was over.

Harry had only met her a couple of times in passing and was not sure of her name. She was about his height and slightly round, although not unattractively so. Her chestnut hair elegantly framed her round face and she smiled at Harry as she saw him.

"Hi, I'm Elizabeth, my friends call me Lizzy, I don't believe we've met?"

Well surprise number one: Elizabeth was polite and seemed to be genuinely nice, who would have thought that of anyone who chose to date Dudley?

"Oh that's just Harry, my cousin, don't pay attention to him. Can I get you something to drink?"

Elizabeth looked slightly confused but nodded. "Just water please."

Harry watched in nothing short of amazement as Dudley obediently went to get her drink.

"Dudley doesn't really talk about you, are you in for a visit?"

Harry started when he realized that she was talking to him. "Umm… no. I live here during summer and go to a boarding school for the rest of the year."

"Your parents don't mind?"

"Nope." He replied not really wanting to go into it.

"Harry's parents died when he was one in a car crash, his dad was drunk." Dudley said as he walked in and handed the glass of water to Elizabeth.

"He was not." Harry knew they had to stick to the car story but that didn't mean Dudley had to insinuate that his dad had been an asshole.

"Whatever. Come on, Lizzy I'll show you my room. You don't have to be nice to the freak."

Elizabeth glared and didn't move. "What happened to your eye?"

Harry averted his eyes and shrugged.

"_Lizzy" _

She nodded and moved towards the stairs to follow her boyfriend.

Harry attacked his chores with a new vigor. He wanted desperately not to imagine what they where doing locked in Dudley's room for an hour, completely alone. He shuddered and went back to mopping the entryway.

Suddenly there was a crash from upstairs and he could hear the two voices so clearly that it was almost like they where in the same room.

"YOU LIKED ME WELL ENOUGH THREE DAYS AGO!" Dudley yelled

"YOU WHERE NICE THEN! BUT IF THIS IS HOW YOU REALLY ARE I DON"T THINK WE SHOULD BE TOGETHER!" Elizabeth answered just as loudly.

"FINE! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE YOU STUPID BITCH!"

"I DON'T KNOW YOU AT ALL!"

There was rushed banging as someone ran down the stairs and Harry turned away to pretend he hadn't been listening. A tear ridden Elizabeth sped by him and slipped painfully on the floor.

Harry rushed over to her. "Are you ok?" Helped her up and brushed a few tears off her face. "Shh…it's alright."

Without warning she ripped her arm away and ran out the door. Harry had a feeling that he wouldn't be seeing her again. Oh well.

Dudley stayed locked in his room for the rest of the afternoon, which was fine with Harry. His Aunt had been running out of chores to give him so he had finished rather quickly after the drama. With out his cousin around Harry was fee to watch what he wanted on T.V and even play on the computer. As far as he was concerned Dudley's breakup with his girlfriend had been the best thing since sliced bread.

Aunt Petunia arrived home at four. Her sharp eyes took in the clean house then landed on her nephew in Dudley's usual position: in front of the television.

"Where's Dudley?" she snapped. There where shopping bags in her hands but Harry noticed she had taken great pains for the bags not to touch her nails in anyway.

"In his room." Harry flicked the channel. How was it Dudley spent so much time in front of the thing if there was nothing good to watch?

She huffed and gave him an annoyed look before slipping off her shoes and marching up the stairs, looking like she was on a mission.

Harry continued to watch TV for the next half hour, eventually deciding that the lesser evil was a show called changing rooms, where neighbors redid a room in there friends house. He couldn't help thinking that if he where redoing his room he would want to do it himself to make sure he wouldn't have to do the thing over again.

Just when the big reveal was about to happen his aunt came barging down the stairs looking like and angry lion.

"You little retch! Why did you have to dig your nose in! Why couldn't you just do your chores? You've ruined everything! My poor Dudders!"

Harry glanced nervously at the room reveal and while trying to figure out what he had done wrong this time. Usually he had a small idea of what he was being yelled at for but today he couldn't remember doing anything wrong. Mopping. Check. Vacuuming. Check. Laundry. Check. Dusting. Check. Was Dudley spinning lies again?

Probably.

Aunt Petunia stomped over to him and ripped the TV controller out of his hand and in one swift motion turned it off. "Look at me when I'm talking to you, you good for nothing!"

Harry wanted to scream. Not only had he watched a half hour of crap to be denied the out come of the show, but from now on his aunt would be doing her own chores if he was good for nothing!

"What?" He snapped

"What? WHAT? You damn well know what!"

"No I don't!"

There was a wail form upstairs. "He's lying mummy! He did it all on purpose! It's all his fault!" Dudley had obviously been listening in.

"Of course it is pooky!" Petunia yelled back up to her son before rounding on Harry. "I don't have time for this now. I'm not ready at all, and I have to meet your uncle in 40 minutes, but rest assured we will be talking about this when I get back and you will not get off lightly. I swear if you put one more foot out of line tonight, you may never see a scrap of food ever again!"

She threw the controller at him, which Harry defiantly caught, and stormed out of the room.

Without a thought he quickly turned the TV back on hoping to catch the tail end of the before and after pictures and was only met with credits. Harry sighed. Oh well. He supposed most people would be more worried if their aunt had yelled at them like that but Harry was unfazed. He had spent so many years of his life listening to these types of threats that his brain barely even processed them.

But still he was curious to find out what he was being punished for. Maybe he could wait for his aunt to leave and interrogate Dudley. Yeah that sounded good.

His aunt left without a word. Taking her purse in sharp aggravated motions and shooting him glares as she went, daring him to disobey her.

No sooner had he heard the car drive away that Harry was running up the stairs fully intending to get some answers. He knocked on the door and (ignoring the muffled "leave me alone") walked right in.

"What the hell did you tell your mum?" Harry all but yelled, only flattering for a moment when Dudley turned around. His cousin was crying. Genuinely crying. Harry couldn't remember the last time that had happened. He hadn't thought his cousin still knew how, but there it was living proof that Dudley Dursley had feelings.

"I told her the truth! Now leave me ALONE!"

"Oh really?" Harry said ignoring the last part of his cousin's answer. "And what truth would that be?"

Dudley stood up from his bed, starting to understand he would not be rid of Harry so easily. He took several steps forward trying to appear intimidating, which was deflated by the fact that he was wiping the tears off his face. Harry remained in the doorway refusing to move an inch.

"That it's you fault that-that Lizzy and me bro-broke up!" He sniffled and a tear leaked out his left eye.

Harry was rather surprised that Dudley cared so much. He certainly hadn't sounded like it earlier and Dudley had more of a "my way or no way type of attitude."

"It is not!"

"Is too! We got up stairs and it was all Harry this and Harry that and how did Harry get that black eye Dudley? And she didn't even care that I have the nicest computer or video games or TV or anything! She just wanted to know about stupid you! And why you had to do the chores and why you had ugly clothes!" At this part Dudley seemed to grow in size and glare menacingly at Harry. "And so I told her! I told her how you where a freak and a good for nothing and stupid and she got mad! And when I tried to kiss her she pushed me away and said I was," His face contorted horribly in a effort to hold back the wail " A WANKER! And no one talks to me like that and I told her so and she got all hysterical and left! And so it's your fault!"

Harry stared at Dudley in shock. Not only was his reasoning horrible but he had used a big word like Hysterical. He really didn't know what to say, but Dudley didn't seem to notice and kept pouring out the rest of his problems, like Harry cared.

"And now she's going to tell everyone her stupid lies and then I'm going to be dumb Dudley again and no one will like me anymore and it won't matter that I'm a boxing champion or that I have nice stuff! And it's all your stupid fault!" Abruptly he seemed to realize what he had said and he shoved Harry out of his room and slammed the door in his face.

Harry stood there not feeling the slightest bit of sympathy for his cousin. How many times in primary school had Dudley made Harry the bud of the joke and…hell he wished that his biggest problems where as small as a girl. The whole thing was Dudley's own fault anyway…or maybe his parents for making letting him such a prick…. But it was most certainly not his.

Harry didn't hear from Dudley for the rest of the evening. He took the time to write letters to Ron and Hermione (at the kitchen table!) and watch more television while he could.

His aunt and uncle arrived home at around 11:30. Harry watched from the window as his uncle slammed the car door and waddled towards the door to the house. He quickly turned off the TV, it would not do his cause any good for them to see him doing something that Dudley loved so much. The lock clicked and Harry briefly considered running to his room but then decided it would be a useless attempt. His uncles' lecture was in inevitable.

"BOY!" Vernon yelled as he marched into the house his face turning a strange color of purple when he spotted his nephew in the living room. Aunt Petunia whimpered slightly when he walked on the living room carpet without removing his shoes, but other wise didn't comment, which in itself was an indication of her anger. It was defiantly not looking good for Harry at the moment.

"Your freaky little self has ruined the Dursley reputation for the last time!" uncle Vernon roared and despite himself Harry took a small step backwards. There was a thudding from the stairs, which signaled the entrance of Dudley. "We've been nothing but good to you boy and this is what we get in return!"

Harry snorted. "I do every bloody chore you ask me to! I think it's the other way around!"

"Enough!" Vernon's spit flew through the air and landed in Harry's face. "I will not take your insolence boy! Because of you I might not make this deal!"

"What!" that was about the stupidest this he had ever heard. Dudley and his father where defiantly one in the same.

"All that I could think of throughout dinner was how upset you had made my dinky duddydums!" Petunia shrieked.

"Speaking of which how DARE you show your freakishness to make Dudley loose his girlfriend!" Harry's uncle yelled " Dudley is nothing but an intelligent, strong young man whose only fault is have you for a cousin!"

Harry was tired from a bad night sleep, chores and no longer possessed the calm exterior to put up with this ridiculous misplaced anger. "Dudley is nothing but a spoiled, stupid selfish brat!"

Through his anger he didn't even see the hand coming. It was as if one moment he was standing and the next he was flat on his back with his right side of his face on fire. The house was deathly quite except for his uncles' short gasps of breath. Once his vision came back to him he could vaguely make out the shocked faces of his Aunt and cousin. His relatives where all frozen in place as if they where waiting for lightning to strike them where they stood. Harry quickly righted himself unwilling to show an ounce of weakness. Without a word he marched up to his room, hearing the telltale click of a lock sliding in to place minutes later.

He lay in bed unable to fall a sleep for a long time that night, wondering why he had been so surprised that his uncle had hit him. His aunt and uncle where many things but first and foremost they where loving and proud parents. Besides, It was defiantly not the first time that they had smacked him about, before Hogwarts those types of things had been pretty frequent. Grabbing his arm so tightly that it bruised, pulling him by the hair, a slap or two had always been a way of life in number four Private Drive. Now that he though about it, his relatives had never once touched him in anyway that wouldn't be considered rough. They had never crossed that line though, he had never been beaten or anything just a bit of general mistreatment. But the question remained why did it bother him so much now when his uncle hit him? It wasn't anything he couldn't deal with. It was no different than before really.

But it was.

Now Harry had gotten away form this place. Now he knew that there was better. Now he had spent a summer at the burrow being coddled by Mrs.Weasley. Now he knew how a real family acted to each other. Now he knew what it was like to just mention his magic and the Dursley's freeze in every act of mistreatment. Now he knew it didn't have to be like this.

Harry didn't get much sleep that night. Which turned out to be a good thing because he was locked in for most of the day. At lunchtime a plate of stale bread, lumpy cheese and a glass of water appeared through the cat flap but other then that Harry got not food all day. Not having enough energy to do any homework or even get dressed, he slept most of the day away or walked in circles in the small space, wondering what his punishment would be. At around 7 o'clock there was a knock on his door.

"Where going out." It was aunt petunia.

"Whatever."

He watched the car drive away from the curb and settled in for an evening just as exciting at his day. To his surprise at 10 there was a knock on his door. He hadn't heard the Dursley's come back yet. But before he had time to check the driveway the door flew open.

It was not any of the Dursley's and for a moment Harry stood, shocked, before he quickly pulled out his wand.

"Who are you?"

"Well I didn't think I had changed that much in a year." Said Remus Lupin

"If your professor Lupin prove it." He knew it was somewhat of a strange request but Lupin seemed to understand.

"You hate dementors. You fainted on the train when you saw it and I had to do a patronus that made it go away. I gave you chocolate. Later you asked me to give you lessons on the Patronus so you could play quidditch. Your Patronus is a stag, which was also your father's Animagus form. Need I go on?"

Harry dropped his wand and smiled. "What are you doing here Professor?"

"Please Harry call me Remus. I'm here to collect you and take you somewhere safe."

Harry frowned. "It number four in trouble?"

Remus laughed. "No, certainly not. However I thought you might enjoy a change of scenery."

"Ok, let me jut get my stuff together."

"Oh no, let me." He waved his wand and all the contents that had been spread all over Harry's room neatly went into his trunk.

"Thanks! You've gotta teach me that one! Oh wait." Harry moved the carpet over and took out the loose floor bored. In side there was the picture album, his invisibility cloak and several packages of cakes sent by Mrs.Weasley. He always kept his most prized possessions there in case the Dursley's got it in their head to take away his trunk again. He only wished it where big enough to fit his firebolt.

Remus smiled as he watched Harry place the clock and album placed on top of his clothes. "That it?"

"Yup and Hedwig of course."

"Of course." Remus waved for Harry to move ahead as he shrunk Harry's trunk and placed the small box in his pocket. "I left a note on the kitchen table telling your family where you where. Hopefully they won't be too worried before they find it."

Harry held back a laugh. "The word "worried" and "Harry" don't go in the same sentence with the Dursley's."

Remus looked slightly concerned but otherwise didn't comment.

Harry suddenly felt self-conscious remembering his black eyes and the baggy clothes he was wearing. He noticed Remus glancing critically at the locks on his bedroom door and quickly rushed him down stairs.

"Where are we going?"

Remus seemed to snap out of a trance that he had been in. "We will be walking to miss. Figg's house and using her floo. Dumbledore has made sure that order members are positioned all along the streets so if we run into any trouble, we'll be covered."

"Miss. Figg's a witch? And what's The Order?"

"Not here. I'll explain once we get to the safe house."

Harry nodded and Remus opened the door and led the way outside. Harry didn't look back.

Remus spared no time for pleasantries once they arrived at miss. Figg's. He politely declined all her offers for tea and cakes with a practiced ease. Somehow Remus managed to seem gentlemanly as he rushed Harry to the fireplace at an almost rude pace. Harry had noticed that the older man had been on edge ever since they had left number four and he was defiantly not complaining to be leaving, so he stayed to the slide lines and watched the way Remus charmed miss. Figg into letting them make a quick escape. Harry was amazed at his skill knowing from personal experience how hard it was to get out of "tea time with Figg."

"Alright Harry, we've set up the floo so it's only connected to one place, so all you have to do is throw the powder in the fireplace. Do you need me to got first and demonstrate?"

Harry shook his head. It seemed simple enough. He took a handful of powder form the box that Remus showed him and disappeared into the flames.

Not quite knowing what to expect, he was happily surprised to land in a small cozy looking living room. It was silent throughout the house and Harry walked around the room looking at the many pictures along the walls. There where a few of people he didn't recognize but he stopped when his eyes landed on a picture of a messy haired man and emerald eyed woman holding a baby between them.

There was a noise from behind him and he turned to see Remus dusting the ashes form the floo off. He gave Harry a mischievous look when he noticed what he had been looking at. "It's not much, but welcome to my home."

"Remus, you back? All in one piece?"

"In the living room, you prat!" Remus answered and the form of his godfather sauntered in.

The first thing Harry noticed about his godfather was that he looked much better then he had last seen him. Regular meals and showers seem to have done him well, and if Harry wasn't mistaken he had even gotten a haircut. He was out of his Azkaban outfit and now wore robes that fit him although they where somewhat eccentric.

Sirius's smiled faltered however when it landed on his godson and Harry realized he must look as bad as Sirius did good. He now sported two black eyes courtesy of his uncle and he had not bothered to change his clothes or brush his hair since yesterday.

"What happened to your eyes?" Sirius said coming towards him and tilting his chin up.

Harry bit his lip. He must look like a complete git. One black eye was bad enough, but who ever heard of having two black eyes? "You know Dudley. Had to show me how he won his boxing championship." He tried to laugh it off unsuccessfully. "It doesn't matter. You look good."

"Really?" Sirius answered coolly "You look like crap."

Harry laughed nervously again. Suddenly all his questions about the order, miss. Figg and Remus's skill at polite denial didn't seem so important. "Well I pretty tired so…"

Remus quickly unshrunk his trunk and Harry pulled out his pajamas in complete silence. Remus showed him to the bathroom wordlessly and pointed out towels and soap.

"Oh and Harry…ummm…I have some bruise balm in the cupboard here if you umm want to use it."

Harry had a strange sensation of being aggravated and thankful at the same time. Part of him wished that Remus had not brought it up but the other part of him did a dance thanking magical medicine. "Thanks."

When he got out of the bathroom the two marauders where still in the living room. Their conversations ended abruptly when Harry walked in, making him think it was about him. Sirius seemed to be pouting.

"I don't really have an extra bedroom for you, as it is me and Sirius have been taking turns on my bed. I was hoping it would be alright if I just transfigured the couch." Remus said discretely stepping on Sirius's foot.

"No problem."

Remus waved his wand and in front of him appeared a perfectly comfortable looking bed.

"Thanks…well good night I guess." Harry said

Remus smiled. "Good night Harry."

"Yeah." Said Sirius with an easy smile. "Good night kid, it's great to see you, we'll talk in the morning."

They both left the room turning the lights off as they went. Despite the warm summer night Sirius's closing remark had left him cold inside.

A/N: This story is alot of first's for me. Most of my storys are about the mauraders, but this one will follow Harry through his fifth year. I had some great ideas hanging around and finaly desided to put them in a story. I would really appreicate some reviews to tell me how I'm doing. I like getting constructive criticisum from people so don't be afraid to say " Ummm mel this is kind of wierd here..." just please do it nicely and I'll try to improve on the next chapter.

The next update for this story will probibly be in about 2-3 weeks. I have the chapter all planned and it's probibly going to be about the same length. It will have Sirius and Harry's talk, Harry's birthday and Harry will be getting a vision.

thanks for reading! and please review!


	2. discovery

disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter two: discovery

Harry awoke the next morning to the smell of bacon and muffled voices filtering in form the kitchen. For a moment he was slightly disoriented but then he remembered. He was at Remus's house, he was safe and he didn't have to cook breakfast. He lay for an unknown amount of time drifting in and out of sleep, just enjoying the warmth and refusing to let himself think. He ached a lot less then the days pervious and he relished the feelings of complete peace and comfort that came over him. There was no Voldemort, there was no Dursley's and there was no need to rush to get to school.

Eventually, his bladder refused to let him lay in bed any longer. He rolled out and winced at the cold of the wood tile. Grabbing his glasses off the coffee table he made his way to the bathroom. His feet stuck to the floor, making him wish he'd stopped to put on socks.

After relieving himself he looked critically at his reflection in the mirror. The bruising had gone down a lot, although there was still a faint swelling in each cheek. Most of the bruises that had also decorated his torso were gone, or considerably better. Mentally thanking magic he opened the container of bruise cream that still rested on the counter. One more application should do the trick.

After trying to make his hair look less like a matted animal on his head for a couple of minutes he resigned himself to the talk he had been dreading from the night before. There was no possible way to get around Sirius's questions without telling a lie or him being dangerously angry. Harry wasn't quite sure of which one he preferred so he mentally decided to make it up as he went along.

Slightly nervous and stomach growling with hunger he finally left the safety of the bathroom and padded to the kitchen.

He could hear the happy banter of Sirius and Remus from the hallway. Upon entering the kitchen for the first time he was pleasantly surprised. Aunt Petunia would have hated it, of course. Papers, books and nick-knacks were strewn all over the counter not leaving much room for counter space. There was pile of dirty dishes in the sink that seemed to be washing themselves, but a steady drip of water spilled over the edge of the sink making a small puddle on the floor. Remus stood in front of the oven in his P.J's impatiently pushing the bacon around. Almost directly across the room Sirius sat at the table reading the daily prophet. The small dinner table had been pushed against the wall to gain more space and held what seemed to be every condiment in existence, making Harry wonder if plates would even fit. In the far corner was a door that Harry guessed lead outside that was dressed with frilly, flowery drapes that would have made Miss. Figg pause. But Despite the somewhat disarrayed state of things the room oozed comfort and welcome.

Sirius stopped reading an article out loud when he spotted Harry walk in. "There you are, we thought you might sleep the day away. Have a seat. You look much better."

Harry blushed and moved to sit on the chair across from Sirius.

"Did you sleep ok?" Remus asked "I was never quite the transfiguration expert that Sirius or your father where, I hope I didn't make the mattress to lumpy."

Harry who had found the mattress perfect compared to his one at Privet Drive was quick to reassure him. "No I slept great, I didn't feel one lump, I swear."

Sirius chuckled. "Moony, you've been practicing."

Remus rolled his eyes and placed the bacon on a plate. "No eggs, I'm afraid. Padfoot over here has eaten me out of house and home and I haven't had time to go shopping yet. But I do have some toast or bagels if you like?"

Out of the corner of his eye Harry caught Sirius stick out his tongue as he readily agreed to a bagel, just happy that he didn't have to make the breakfast for once.

The group launched into a somewhat uncomfortable silence after all the pleasantries had been observed. Harry played with a piece of thread sticking out form the table cloth, Sirius faked reading the prophet and Remus tapped his fingers as he waited for the toaster to pop.

There was a ding and then the noise of Remus placing the bagel on a plate with some bacon and handing it to Harry, then seating himself.

"So…" Harry said as he studied the pile of condiments looking for the butter. Remus and Sirius both stared at him and Harry realized he hadn't actually known what to say, he just couldn't take the silence any longer. "Where…umm… are we? I mean I know where at Professor Lupin house but…umm where is that?"

There seemed to be an almost audible sigh of relief from the two men.

Remus smiled. "Please, Harry, Remus. There's no need to be polite. You are in what is more affectionately called the hovel in Valhalla, which just happens to be in Italy."

Harry's eyebrows shot up. He had never been out of England before, except for one visit to Aunt Marge in Scotland, and had for some reason always imagined he would feel different. To think that he had been well out of anywhere in the U.K for a night now was a bit of a shock. "Really? Italy? Cool. What's the hovel in Valhalla mean?"

Sirius snorted and whispered "I told you so" which Remus seemed to diligently ignore. "It means the shack in heaven. I though it quite an apt name for such a petite house on such beautiful land."

"Remus is romantic like that." Sirius budded in.

Remus looked affronted. "There's nothing wrong with a bit of romance, but god forbid Sirius Black so much as light a candle."

"Here we go again." Sirius whispered to Harry in a way that made him giggle like a little boy. He was just so relieved that they where not drilling him about his summer.

"Number one reason that his girlfriends broke up with him during school you know!" Remus told Harry

"You only now that cuz you took them all after they left me." Sirius rebutted

"I did not!"

Sirius raised an eyebrow and seemed to be sizing his friend up. "Melissa summers."

"Friends!"

"Cherease Mcdougle."

"Friends!"

"Alison Talbut."

"We kissed once before you went out."

"Nancy…Oh shit… I forget her name…You know who I mean."

"Friends…you went out with her for 3 months you bloody prick."

"Ahha! Sara McDuffle!"

"Ok well I can't deny that…"

" Of course you can't!" Sirius said "Me and James might have been the good looking ones but all the girls wanted to date shabby, sensitive Remus Lupin."

Remus snorted. "If only they knew…" He shook himself and looked at Harry as if just remembering he was there. "I believe you had some questions you wanted answered that we didn't have time to get to last night?"

"Umm…oh yeah!" A dame broke in his mind and all the questions that he was dying to ask came flooding to him. "Mrs. Figg? And what's the order of the Phoenix? And how did you get her to let us leave without tea? And what's going on to stop Voldemort? And-"

"One question at a time." Sirius interrupted "and to think he doesn't even drink coffee…I believe the first thing you wanted to know about was Mrs. Figg your neighbor?" Harry gave an affirmative nod. "Oh well I'm surprised you haven't figured that out yet. When Dumbledore left you at the Dursley's all those years ago he wanted someone who knew our world to be on the look out, just in case, especially at the beginning when they where still rounding up Death Eaters. Arabella is a squib who's parents where very close with Dumbledore during the first war. She was the perfect candidate to look out for you without accidentally doing magic or something."

Now that Harry though about it that did make an awful lot of sense, but it was still a little mind blowing to think of anyone magical, no matter how small, living in Little Whinging.

"As for the order of the phoenix," Remus continued " It's Dumbledore's organization that fought in the first war against Voldemort. We've been rounding up old members and trying to get new one's. For now that's all I can tell you but rest assured we are working hard."

Harry bit his tongue and didn't ask anymore questions on what the order was doing. Even though Remus had only been his teacher for a year he knew "the look" that said not to continue on that path. It was slightly annoying to be treated as such a child really…but on the other hand he had a good picture of what Voldemort was doing and wasn't too keen on what they had to do to prevent his evil plans.

Remus seemed to notice Harry's dilemma and smiled comfortingly. "As for getting us out of tea with Arabella, I took all my classes in charm form James and Sirius, mostly James. Sirius never perfected the art quite as well: he tended to get tired of games and just burst."

Sirius faked a pout but then finally had to agree with Remus that he had jumped the gun a few times. "But James," Sirius said, "James was a natural. He got out if so many detentions that it was amazing. Even McGonnagl had a soft spot for him. If she's really strict now blame your dad, when we where kids she was just starting out and she used to get in trouble with the other teachers for letting him get away with so much. Yup, your dad could charm his way into anyone's heart, except Lily's that is. She always saw right through his bull."

Remus laughed and stared at the wall in a way that suggested he wasn't really staring at the wall at all. "That she did. Every time a teacher let him off you could be sure Lily would find a way to punish him. Of course by the end of seventh year, when they started dating he had managed to get her to loosen up a bit and she had got him to tighten up a bit. They really were the perfect couple."

Remus and Sirius both seemed to drift off to a different time. Harry sat quietly for the next minute or so not really wanting to interrupt the moment. How different would his life had been if he had parents? Would he still even be himself? The questions where almost too painful to ask.

To occupy himself he took a bite of his bagel. The "crunch" seemed to wake them both up from their daydreams. They both looked uncomfortable for a moment. Remus stood abruptly and walked to the sink to busy himself with some unnecessary job and Sirius gave Harry a calculating look while he had a drink of his coffee.

"So," Sirius finally said breaking the second round of uncomfortable silence that day. "We've told you all our deep dark secrets, I thinks it's time you told us a bit about your summer, including how you got those bruises."

Harry's stomach sank and he quickly put down his bagel for lack of appetite, from the corner of his eye Remus was turning around to see his answer.

"I told you. Dudley is champion of some boxing competition and likes to show off his moves. It's no big deal." It was partly true. One of the reasons Dudley had started Harry hunting up again was because he had wanted to show off to his friends. Sirius and Remus didn't have to know about his uncle's backhand. They would either be really upset or tell Harry he deserved it. He wasn't sure which was worse. Even still, he found it surprisingly hard to lie to these men.

Sirius glanced at Remus and they seemed to have a silent conversation.

"He hit you twice Harry?" Remus asked, "Why not just stop after one, hmmm?"

"Y-yes." He stuttered.

"You're a horrible liar Harry." Sirius said. "Whatever it is, you don't have to lie to us. We won't think any less of you. You can tell us."

Was he that transparent? "Its no big deal. Really. I kind of deserved it, I said some pretty bad stuff. Just drop it, ok?"

Sirius looked to be getting angry now. He stood up and pushed in his chair. "No not ok! You spend one month with theses people and you look like you've been living on the street! They don't even dress you properly. Those pajamas are about 10 sizes too big and your skinny as a stick. Did they even feed you?"

"Sirius, for the love of Merlin calm down and Shut up." Remus said it calmly and quietly but in a tone that left no room for argument. Harry recognized it as the voice he had used as a teacher if a student was being difficult. He pulled put the chair and ordered Sirius to sit and turned to Harry with his features softening. "I happened to need some cream last night and I noticed that you used a lot more cream then needed for two bruises. Do you mind telling us about it please?"

Harry knew instantly that he much preferred Sirius's anger to this calm cool logic. It would be so much easier to yell back that it didn't matter if they had been yelling at him. "I had some other bruise's on my chest and stomach and stuff. It doesn't matter."

"Where those done by your cousin as well?" Remus asked calmly

Harry eyed Sirius who was a combination of tense anger and pouting from being ordered around. "Yes." At least that was the truth.

Remus nodded. "but he didn't give you both black eyes?"

"W-what makes you say that?" Harry could feel himself breaking. He was going to tell them, it was just a matter of time.

"Because then he would have had to beat you up twice in a 24 hour period. While not impossible, unlikely. If he was just doing it to show off to his friends you still had the bruises he could show to friends. Seems pointless to punch you again."

There it was again. Calm cool logic. And this time Harry could not lie. "I was asking for it really. I knew that I shouldn't have talked to uncle Vernon that way but I was tired cuz I couldn't sleep the night before and I swear it wasn't really my fault and…" Remus and Sirius where staring at him in horror. Here it comes. You can't even defend yourself against a muggle! I thought you where a powerful wizard!

"Harry what ever you did or didn't do He was the adult in charge of you and he had no right to hit you. No matter what." Remus said his calm exterior shattering a bit. "I though maybe another kid. I never thought…."

"It's no big deal." Harry said for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

Sirius was shaking his head. "Me and Dumbledor will defiantly be having a word."

"Please don't!" Harry countered, where they going to go tell everyone? "I can take care of myself. Voldemorts nothing compared to uncle Vernon. Don't tell anyone."

"Harry he should know..." Remus said

"Look," he scrabbled for an excuse " I'm here for the rest of the summer right? So I won't be seeing them for at least another year. Can't we just leave it for now?"

He watched as the adults crumbled under his pleading eyes. "I suppose…"

Life in the hovel of Valhalla settled in to a comfortable routine. The males would sleep in late, whoever woke up first would make breakfast for everyone. This worked out well because it was rarely Sirius, who had found a way to set fire to a croissant on the second day of Harry's stay. They spent the rest of the morning being lazy in their pj's before getting dressed after lunch. This would trigger the beginning of Remus and Sirius working. Harry was never told exactly what they where working on, only that it was for the order and important so he did his best to remain out of the way. This time was best spent doing his homework (Which he hadn't started before he left private drive) and looking through the various books Remus had on quidditch, dark arts and (of all things) ministry regulations. He, surprisingly, found the latter pretty interesting. There was actually a rule that it was illegal to swear in Gringotts bank. The penalty was a 3-month sentence in Azkaban unless a sum of 1000 gallons was paid. It was implemented in 1743 after an all out war started in the main room when a wizard called a Goblin a "gucker". There were three casualties.

After supper the 3 would play a friendly game of gobble stones or have a small Chess tournament. Harry really enjoyed watching Remus and Sirius bicker while they played. At around midnight they would all go to bed. Remus slept in his room, Sirius slept on a cot in the office and Harry slept on the transfigured couch.

When Harry had been enjoying himself in his father's friend's company for about a week Remus told him that they would be leaving. After 20 minutes of frustrating conversation to find out where they where going Harry went back to the living room to pack up his things non-the-wiser. The next night would be his last in the hovel in Valhalla.

He bent down and started to pick up his things that had slowly found their way around the room, once he had discovered that Sirius and Remus didn't mind the mess. While he was on his knee's picking up his spells year 4 he noticed some books on the bottom of the shelf that he had never seen before. One was labeled "7th year", another "graduation" and the one next to it "Prongs wedding." Sure enough when he surveyed the shelf it was all albums with various titles.

Harry bit his lip and looked back towards the kitchens where he could still hear the voices of Sirius and Remus. His hands itched to look at the albums. Remus had never really said he couldn't, in fact he told Harry he could look at any book he wanted, but this felt some how much more personal that a regular old book. Maybe he was just being paranoid after to many years of Aunt Petunia yelling at his for touching anything at all. Remus need never know and they where his parents so he had every right to look.

With one last glance towards the kitchen Harry reached out and took out the book labeled 7th year. He handled the book like it was made of glass and spent probably what would be excessive amounts of time on pictures of everyday things; such as doing homework.

He had been so absorbed in taking in every detail of the pictures that he didn't even notice the foot steps of Sirius and Remus getting closer until…

"Harry, you almost done packing? Me and moony have voted to take the day off work to hang out."

"Moony and I." Remus corrected

He shut the album quickly but they had already spotted him.

"You found the albums, I see." said Remus moving a sweater out of the way so he could sit on one of the wing chairs.

"Umm…yeah I hope that's ok." Harry raised his chin a bit as he said it as if to dare the werewolf to tell him he had not been allowed.

"Oh no that's perfectly fine." Remus said. "In fact I was wondering when you would find them. Which one are you looking at?" Harry held up the cover. "Ahh…seventh year…there's some good pictures in there."

Sirius held out his hand for the book and Harry gave it over. There was silence for a moment as Sirius flipped through the pages, smiling slightly.

"Oh yes, I remember now," Said Sirius about half way through the pages. "Lily had that obsession with taking pictures that year…always going on about how it might be the last time we're together ever…she drove us nuts clicking pictures every two seconds."

"That she did." Remus said

Harry paled slightly thinking how much the clicking of Creevey's camera drove him up the wall. He sure hoped him mom was nothing like that…

"I sure am glad to have the memories now." Remus commented as he looked over Sirius shoulder at the pictures. "Even if she did drive us all stir crazy at the time…well except James."

Sirius laughed. "Yeah he loved posing for pictures. I remember lily hitting him a lot for suggesting some…interesting poses. Little pervert."

Harry made a face and climbed onto the couch on the other side of Sirius so he could see the pictures as well. The rest of the afternoon devolved into laughter and stories, which had one of them occasionally leaving the couch to get snacks and drinks.

The next morning Harry rushed to get his things together. He hadn't had time to finish packing by the time they stopped looking through the album at 11:30, so now he ran around the room while Remus jokingly admonished him for not packing earlier.

"Ok…I think…I'm done." Harry said as he scanned the room.

Remus smiled. "Good." He picked up a can that had been sitting on the side table, which Harry eyed warily. "Harry I know that you don't like port key travel. Lord knows you have every right to after what happened last year, but this is the fastest and safest way we could think of. Maybe if we had been closer we could have flown but not all the way to England from the Italian countryside. I assure you it is one hundred percent safe. Professor Dumbledore made it himself."

Harry didn't know if he trusted the words "Portkey" and "safe" in the same sentence but he did trust Dumbledore, and Remus as well for that matter. After a brief debate in his head he nodded.

Sirius gave him a wide smile. "You'll be fine, kid."

They all surrounded the can and Remus whispered a spell. "It will activate in 30 seconds. Make sure you've go a good grip on your luggage."

There where a few heart stopping moments where there was nothing to do but wait, before harry felt the telltale pull on his navel. They landed on what could have been any middle class suburban street in London. Harry's anxiety immediately eased when he saw a family with two small children walking by.

"Where are we?" He asked

"Shhh." Sirius said "be quiet and look at this, memorize it if you can."

He was handed as small piece of parchment that had written on it in loopy handwriting _# 12 Grimmauld place. Headquarters to the order of the phoenix. _

Suddenly he understood. He was not just being moved around to just any place, his godfather had taken him to the very organization that was beginning the movement against Voldemort.

Remus led the way to the front door of a huge house that had seemed to appear out of no where once he had read the parchment. It looked to be one of those homes that could be breathtaking if it just had some TLC. There where two turret's and the windows where big and somewhere stained glass. But the shutters where falling off and the outside walls where almost black with wear from over the years. The front door was black and creaked as Remus opened it. Sirius whispered to him to be quite and put his trunk down before rushing through the door at the end of the hall after Remus.

Harry took his time setting down his trunk and taking in his surroundings. The stairs where directly to his left. The railing was a rich brown that left no doubt that it was really wood. There was also a navy blue curtain that was hanging in a very unusual place. After brief consideration he decided not to touch it, the material was shifting in a very eerie way that looked almost like someone was breathing behind it. He shivered and made his way to the door that Sirius and Remus had gone in to.

There was a creak of a hinge before Harry's world exploded in to confetti.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

He lowered his wand once he saw the friendly faces of the Weasleys, Hermione and a pink haired lady who seemed nice enough. His heart was pounding rather quickly but he managed a small, shaky smile before the girls descended on him. It was only after several minutes of hello's and greetings that he was able to figure out he was standing in the kitchen.

"But it's not my birthday!" He finally managed to sputter out

"Don't worry we know when your birthday is mate." Ron said "but it would have looked way too suspicious if we had done it on your actual birthday."

"Don't worry," said George (maybe it was Fred?) "You still get birthday boy privileges on the 31st."

Harry was in shock. Birthday boy privileges? Did such a thing exist? Harry had certainly never had anything of the sort. His eyes widened further when they landed on the huge pile of presents resting on the table. "Are- are those for me?" He asked so quietly that he was surprised anyone heard him.

"Of course." Said Ginny with a laugh. "Just don't expect anything on your birthday if you open them now."

Hermione frowned. "Go ahead and open them Harry."

He glanced nervously at Sirius, who nodded, and stepped towards the table. When no one spoke he just picked up the present closest to him self. The card was small and obviously home made, with the Chudley cannons logo on it. He looked at Ron. "Thanks mate."

"You haven't opened it yet." A few giggles went around the room at this, which Harry waited to end before going back to examining the gift.

Harry soon figured out the procedure to opening gifts in public (something he had never done before) after only a couple more awkward moments. At the end of the gift opening everyone wandered around the room catching up, comparing summers and laughing.

"Wotcher Harry, I'm Tonks." The woman the pink hair said to him after about half an hour of wondering around.

"Oh…nice to meet you. Thanks for the present." He wasn't exactly sure who she was, why she was there or how she knew him but after his lack of birthday presents anyone who went to the trouble to think of him on is birthday was good in his books.

"No probs." She replied with a wink. "Anything for my cousins godson."

Harry glanced at Sirius. "You're related to Sirius?"

"Yup. Course I haven't seen him in a while."

Harry was interrupted in his conversation with Tonks by the arrival of a cake. His cake. For a moment he just stared at the white frosting with Gryffindor red writing. "Did you make this Mrs.Weasley? It's amazing."

She blushed as red as her hair. "It was nothing, dear. Now blow out the candles."

He closed his eyes. What did he want to wish for? Yes…

He let out a deep breath and all the candles went out.

Everyone cheered.

"What'd you wish for Harry?" Ginny asked

"He can't say or else it won't come true." Hermione said from his left.

Mrs. Weasley bustled over with plates and forks to cut the cake. She took great care to give Harry the piece with the big red H, which made him smile.

He relished every bite of the vanilla delight. Ron picked fun at him for "taking ages" to get through one piece (Ron had already had Two and was trying to trick his way to a third) but he ignored him, committed to the fact that he was going to do what he wanted at his party.

"So Harry," said Hermione innocently, a little to innocently. "Have you started your homework yet?"

He rolled his eyes. "Yes Hermione I have. I've only got potions, transfiguration and divination left." He had left the hardest and worst subjects to do last (Probably not the smartest plan.), A fact that Hermione didn't miss.

"You probably should have done those ones fist to get them out of the way, but" she conceded. "At least you have done some. _Ron doesn't have any of his done yet."_

Ron (as he came back with his third piece of cake) gave them a disgusted look. "Stop talking about school. You'll turn me off this _amazingly delicious cake_."

"You're not getting another piece." Mrs. Weasley said firmly to their left and Ron slumped.

" I have more than a whole month to do all their stupid essays." Ron said as he carefully cut into the cake with a fork; apparently deciding to relish what would be his last piece of cake of the night.

Hermione snorted. "But that's just it. Isn't it? You'll wait until the day before class starts until you get off your arse. You won't use the whole month!"

"What does it matter to you how I do my homework?"

"Fine just don't ask me to help you cause you won't get any!"

"Who say's I need your help?" Ron argued back

As Ron and Hermione's conversation descended into an argument Harry tuned out and let his eyes scan the room. Every one seemed to be enjoying them selves. Tonks, Remus and Sirius we're talking on the other side of the room, each with a half empty bottle of butterbeer in their hands. He noticed the twins slowly making their way towards him and braced himself. You never knew what to expect from them.

Without a word each one grabbed an arm and they pulled him into a shaded corner in the room.

"What's going on guys? having a nice summer?" He asked completely non-pulsed by there secretive air.

"Wonderful Harry my boy!" one replied.

"Because of you we where able to completely restock materials-"

"And we already have several new products-"

"Business is booming."

They both stared at him with identical cheeky grins that said that they knew it was aggravating when they talked like that.

"That's great!" harry said. "Did you manage to buy Ron those robes?"

"Of course but-"

"It's not our fault if he won't wear them because-"

"He thinks we jinxed them."

Harry laughed at that. But then again, could he really blame Ron?

"We just wanted to tell you-"

"To come by our room on the 31st-"

"For a little sneak preview-"

"Of some new products."

"Will do." Harry replied.

He followed the gaze of the twins eyes to see that they where watching Ginny coming closer.

"Gotta go."

And like that they were both sauntering off with their heads together whispering about something. Ginny reached Harry with a contemplative look in the direction of her brothers.

"Their up to something." It was said as a statement to him not a question. "I would say I would figure it out 'cept I know them too well."

Harry shrugged. "Aren't they always?"

"I guess your right." Ginny sighed and they both looked around the room off people. Everyone was deep in conversation (except for Hermione and Ron who we're still fighting.). "Care for the grand tour?" She asked.

"Sure."

With that she lead the way out of the room, putting her fingers to her lips to signal him to be quiet.

A/N: No this is not some start of a Harry/Ginny romance, she really is just giving him a tour. but who knows about the future?

I want to say a really big "I'm sorry" because this took so long. I expected it to be done way sooner but unfortuanatly my teachers didn't agree and piled on the mid-term projects.This chapter was originally going to be alot longer. I was going to completely rap up the summer, however I was rushing stuff and I want to dive in a bit deeeper to hisinteractionswith people we don't see in the school year. The summer will last one, possibly two, more chapters before we get back on the good old hogwarts express.

next update:

I don't want to commit to a date because of what happened last time but I will try and be faster this time for sure. no guarantee's though.

Please Review! I love Hearing your feedback!


	3. summer time and the living is easy

disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter three: summer time and the living is easy

Harry woke the next morning feeling tried from the party the day before but with an overall warm contented feeling. He checked the clock on the night table to see that it was 8:30am. He was slightly surprised that Mrs. Weasley had let them sleep in that late, but he wasn't about to complain.

Ron was snoring softly from the bed across from him.

Harry had been pleasantly surprised with the sleeping arrangements. It had been great at Remus's house, much better then the Dursley's any day, but there was definitely something to be said about having one's own designated space that didn't also double as public territory.

The room he now shared with Ron was small. The two beds, fireplace, night table and tiny dresser filled the space so well that there was only a narrow pathway between the beds to walk in. However whatever the room lacked in size Mrs. Weasley had obviously tried to make up for in comfort. Both boys had a comforter that had the hallmark of Mrs. Weasleys own making and the few pictures and clock that had been placed around the room had clearly been brought from the Borrow. Ron already had 3 Chudley cannon's posters up even though the Weasleys had only arrived a couple of days before Harry.

After pulling on socks and a tee shirt Harry toyed briefly with the idea of waking up Ron just to be annoying, but decided against it almost immediately. Ron was exhausted from the chess tournament the night before. It had been questionable whether the youngest Weasley male would win the small competition that had sprung up but after a miraculous come back he managed to beat his father, making it a tight win. Privately Harry wondered if Mr. Weasley had thrown the game (he had winked at Harry while Ron was bouncing around in celebration) but for now he would give his friend the benefit of the doubt.

Harry made his way down to the kitchen still pondering the details of the chess game.

Harry was somewhat shocked to discover that Mrs. Weasley, Remus and Sirius where the only people awake. They where chatting calmly to each other while Ron's mother made breakfast.

"Where is everybody?" He blurted out

"Sleeping in I expect." Remus answered with a smile. "I assume you have heard of the term?"

Harry still groggy from sleep sent a half-hearted glare the werewolf's way. He took a seat next to his Godfather.

Mrs.Weasley bustled over with an omelet for him, a glass of juice and "good mornings". He accepted the food gratefully and turned to look more closely the dog animagus.

Harry had become to Sirius usual morning greeting, but this morning Sirius looked tense and grumpy. The man was playing with his food sullenly, only taking a bite every few minutes before returning to glaring at the plate like it was a childhood enemy.

"You ok, Sirius?"

Sirius shook himself out of his dark wondering's at the sound of his godsons voice. "Fine. It's just this damn house. Makes me feel 16 again. I still can't believe mom didn't change one single painting in…" he scrunched up his face. "I don't know how many years but a bloody long time!"

Harry heard molly tisked about Sirius language.

"You used to live here?" said Harry in mild surprise. The somewhat depressing decor of black, dark green and grays did not seem to suit Sirius at all.

Sirius snorted. "Not voluntarily. It was my parent's house. I grew up here."

"Oh." Harry said not really knowing how to respond. By Sirius bitter voice he could tell it had not been a good time in his godfathers life and his demeanor left no delusions that he was pleased to be back.

"Surly you heard mother screaming last night? We've been trying to get that bloody painting down for ages not but she went to great lengths to make sure her memory was unable to be destroyed." He made a face at that.

"That paintings of your mom?" Sure Harry had heard it the night before (he didn't know how anyone within a hundred mile radius could not have) but he had been having too much fun at the party to even take note. No one else had seemed even the least bit fazed so he had just assumed it was one of the many wizarding world things that he was oblivious to. "Does she…umm…do that often?"

Sirius got a cheeky smile on his face. "that? That was nothing you should have heard the cow when she was alive."

"Sirius!" Mrs.Weasley admonished. "That's no way to talk about your mother! Even if you and her…did not get along when she was alive."

"Clearly you never met my mother."

"Still…" she insisted. "If one of my babies were to ever…" tears sprung into her eyes. "Why if Percy where to ever…It's just not right the woman raised you!" She sniffled and left the room with a muffled "excuse me."

Remus sent Sirius a dirty look but Sirius just gazed back stubbornly. "_She_ didn't raise me, that's what she had her bloody house elves for."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Do try and get along for all of our sakes please."

"What's wrong with Percy?" Harry asked Remus looking in concern at the direction Mrs. Weasley had left.

"Percy has chosen to align himself with the ministry of magic in favor of his career over his family." Remus answered calmly. But Harry felt anything but calm. How could he? How could Percy chose to throw away the wonderful family he had in favor of the idiot Fudge? Harry having grown up a family as "wonderful"(yeah right) as the Dursley's would never understand the motivation behind such a move.

Harry had been reading the daily Prophet almost daily ever since he had returned to the wizarding world and seen for himself the position. And said position seemed to be base on two things: that Harry and Dumbledore had both lost their minds. Their reasoning for the death of Cedric was weak at best and it had taken Harry a while to get over his anger at such a blatant lie. Didn't the Ministry have any respect for the deceased?

If Percy had estranged himself from his family that meant that they had been doing some heavy-duty defense of Harry and his account of events. It made him very sad and very happy at the same time. For one it meant that he had the Weasleys full support and that they care very much about Harry himself but it also meant that he was one keeping their family apart.

_There not following you, you dimwit. _Harry thought to himself. _They're following Dumbledore. They trust Dumbledore._

"That's horrible" Harry finally choked out, then he scowled. "And I'm sure Percy was a real prat about it too, the way Mrs. Weasleys acting."

"That he was." Remus agreed, before changing the subject. "So how was that charms essay coming that you where working on a couple of days ago?"

Fifteen minutes later Harry heard the squeak as the door opened admitting a sleepy Fred and George. He smiled softly at their eccentric pajama's, that never the less suited them very well.

"Incle Ronnikins not up yet?" Fred asked

"No." said Harry "I thought I'd let him sleep for a bit."

George looked at Harry like he had gone nutters. "We can't have that! Lets go Fred." With out even sitting down the twins did an about-face and made there way back up the stairs to wake up their younger brother.

_Well at least I gave him an extra half-hour_. Harry thought.

Five minutes later a very annoyed and grumpy Ronald Weasley walked into the kitchen. "Thanks so much for rushing to stop them from waking me mate."

Harry laughed. "Anytime! Nice hairdo. You going for a Harry Potter look? I know he's your favorite hero. I think it's a bit too messy even for him."

Ron just grumbled and sent his best friend a rude hand gesture.

Harry was enjoying himself immensely at number twelve Gimmauld place. He had definitely had fun at the hovel in Valhalla the week pervious but there was nothing like being back around his friends. Mrs. Weasley had put them to work trying to fix up the old house but even that had turned out to be fun. By the end of the week the older woman was becoming more and more annoyed about how many water fights had broken out and considering separating the lot of them.

On the 31st Harry was surprised to wake up at 10:30am. Normally they where woken at 7:30 to be ready for breakfast at 8 (Ron had grumbled a lot about having to wake up at such a time during summer but his mother insisted that she was not a restaurant and would make one breakfast at one time and if he didn't show he better be prepared to listen to his stomach growl. She was also having no talk of sleeping until noon. Harry had no problem with this considering his aunt had woken him a lot earlier to make breakfast then do a ridiculous number of chores, and alone at that.)

He walked down to the kitchen hesitantly prepared for one of Mrs. Weasleys "you will not be useless and lazy" speeches but was only met with pleasant smiles.

"Good morning Harry dear." Said Mrs. Weasley "sit down and I'll fix you something nice to eat for breakfast."

Harry stared dumbly. "But I missed breakfast."

"Yes, Well we thought you could have a nice little lye in considering it was you birthday. It was quite a job to keep Fred and George from running in their yelling." She seemed unconcerned about her sons behavior just happy that Harry was awake. "What would you like to eat?"

"Umm…whatever is fine…you know toast or something." Harry was terribly unused to ordering what he wanted…at school and at home the choices were mostly made for him.

"Nonsense! It's you birthday and I'll make you whatever you like."

"Oh…then I guess eggs and bacon is good."

She smiled. " How would you like your eggs?"

His eyes went wide. "Sunny side up I guess."

As she made breakfast Harry's eyes noticed that a banner had been hung on the opposite wall that read "Happy birthday Harry" in big colorful letters. His heart warmed and his brain felt dismayed about how to act. _This isn't like other special treatment this is just for being you, just for your birthday. _Harry thought as he thanked Mrs. Weasley enthusiastically for his breakfast.

The special treatment (or birthday boy treatment as the twins had called it) didn't end there. Harry was banned from doing chores for the rest of the day. in theory it was a very nice idea to not have to do any work on ones birthday but Harry quickly found himself board. The headquarters of the order of the phoenix did not provide too much to do, especially when everyone else was working. Harry was not allowed to go outside and playing goblestones or chess was not very much fun to do on your own. He found himself lying on his bed in a terrific display of doing absolutely nothing…it was not a feeling Harry was well aquatinted with and he did not enjoy the feeling one bit. Even in the past if he had had no chores to do at the Dursley's or no homework or no quidditch practice at school to occupy his time he had had a mystery to crack (whether it be the philosophers stone, the chamber of secrets, Sirius black or, as it had been the year previous, the next task that awaited him.). Quite possibly the only time Harry had had nothing to do was when he was locked in his room or cupboard. Maybe that was why he didn't like not actively doing something. Whatever reason after 15 minutes of just lying there he gave into his inner Hermione.

He picked up his transfiguration book, some parchment and a quill on his way to the dinning room where he could work on his essay without interruption. The dinning room was dusty from miss use (they always ate in the kitchen) and the walls where a dark gray, or perhaps they had simply turned that color from the dust. Harry wiped off a spot for him to place his books on the table with his shirt, not caring if Dudley's hand-me-downs got a bit more worse for wear. He opened the think black curtain that had covered the window, but it didn't make much difference. The windows had obviously not been clean and harry didn't stop to inspect what grime was coating it. Instead he lit the candles in the room with some matches he had gotten accustomed to carrying in his pocket around Grimmauld place (he couldn't use magic and electricity didn't exist in the wizarding world so this had seemed the viable solution, Ron had carried matches since the time he was 8 so that he could turn on the light if he went into a room on his own.). Harry walked around the room lighting the candles and hoping that Ron never got an urge to go into this room. The place was practically a breeding area for spiders. On second thought maybe he would like to see Ron's reaction.

Harry settled in to do his work, squinting at his textbook in the dim light.

He looked up an hour later to the sound of the door squeaking open. To his amusement he saw his Godfather making his way into the room back first so he could check that no one could see where he was going. He shut the door and sighed with relief.

"what'cha doing?"

Sirius jumped at the sound of Harry's voice and spun to face him.

"Don't to that!" Harry just gave a cheeky grin in return for his anger. "What are you doing in here anyway? The others were busy looking for the birthday boy when I left."

Harry shrugged. "I was board. So I decided to do my homework."

Sirius wiped of the chair next to Harry's and look at his book. "You're doing your transfiguration essay? On your birthday?"

"Well what else was I supposed to do? Everyone else is cleaning and it's not like I can go outside and fly." He said to Sirius dubious look. "What was with the whole cloak and dagger routine there?" he challenged.

Sirius laughed. "It was hardly cloak and dagger. I just wanted to get away for a bit. I'm sure you've noticed the tension between me and Molly and I thought I should get away before I said something I'd regret."

Tension was an understatement to Harry. After his first morning at Grimmauld place there had been continued arguments and one even and outright fight between the two. They both tried to hide it from the children but it was obvious that the two disagreed on much.

"Well your welcome to help me with my essay." Harry said, after living with Sirius for a week he had quickly discovered that the man was amazing at transfiguration in peticular and more than willing to help (sometimes more than help) Harry if he had anything he was having trouble with. This in fact had been one of the subjects that Mrs. Weasley had argued with Sirius about. _You're helping them cheat!_

"And have Molly after my hide?" he said with a raised eyebrow. "But I guess it is you birthday…hand it over."

Harry slid the essay and a quill over to him. "Thank you Sirius!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…. You know James was the real expert at transfiguration." He said as he read through Harry's work. "I mean I was always pretty good at transfiguration. Got an outstanding at my newts…but I was a first year compared to Prongs. He did all the reading for the animagus transformation. The rest of us tried but it was like reading Japanese. It was so funny he would read through the pages then have to re-explain it in a more simplified versions for us idiots."

Harry smiled. "Sirius what did my dad do after school?"

Every time someone had talked to Harry about what his dad's life had been like it had always been memories about Hogwarts. Except for James death Harry didn't know one detail of what had happened in-between his fathers final year at Hogwarts and his death. Harry suddenly found himself curious about the in-between time.

"James? Oh he became a lawyer." Sirius said "like I said before he was wicked at persuasive talking and he had this amazing sense of Gryffindor fairness, it was the perfect job for him. He hadn't been in the business that long when he died but he was already a high profile lawyer. He could have done anything he wanted really, cuz he got so well on his Newts but he told me once that he "wanted to put away the bad guys in jail. He would have been livid if he had been alive for the way the justice system went after Voldemort fell. He always had this real sense that the justice system should be just. He would have had a fit if a death eater hadn't gotten a trial…even if it was real obvious."

"But why? I mean if it was really obvious?" said Harry confused.

"I didn't really understand it either but what he said was that if there was a mistake it would be horrible and if there wasn't one they deserved to have the damning evidence thrown in their face. As if to say look what you did and you didn't even cover it up well. Of course the ministry did make mistakes."

Harry wasn't really sure what to say so he asked another question. "And mom what did she do?"

Sirius gave Harry a knowing look that was part sad and part glad. "Your mom was a very valuable member of the ministry of magic. She was brilliant but it was really her knowledge of muggle and wizard customs alike that set her apart. She used to talk to the muggles who had been victimized and find out valuable details of the attack, not to mention give the muggles a returned sense of calm before they where obliviated. She seemed to have this way about her that would get what would have seemed the most unimportant things out of the muggle then the facts would turn out to be a hint of what type of strategy or new spell Voldemort was using. I remember one time an old class mate of mine was tried to do her job once when she was sick and he could barley understand a word the muggles where saying. And he was no dumb bloke, in fact he was head boy the year I was in my sixth year."

" But that doesn't make any sense." Said Harry confused an awed by how important his mom had been.

"We'll he had been raised in the wizarding world. Although he had taken muggle studies courses at Hogwarts he had not concept of what the stuff actually was. The muggles giving there account of what happened used terms that they understood and lived with to describe something like magic that they didn't understand. You mom being a muggle born witch was able to understand them almost instantly and tell us what spells Voldemort was using and so on. It was amazing. Course she quit when she had you. Lily wanted to stay home and raise her baby and when they went into hiding it was impossible for either of them to keep there jobs outside the order, but they still called her back a fair few times to asked what the hell was going on."

"but weren't there a lot of muggleborns that they could ask? Why couldn't they just ask one of the other muggleborns at the ministry?"

Sirius was shaking his head before Harry had finished. "It was a different time back then. Most of the muggleborns where scared silly and tried to hid there heritage. Most of the other muggleborns didn't want to be seen as fighting against Voldemort that actively, I guess they considered themselves targets enough. But your mom was always really open about it and refused to back down. She was a good little brave Gryffindor."

Harry laughed at the last comment and Sirius smiled wider. "There was this one time…."

Harry and Sirius lost track of time talking in the dinning room about Harry's parents. Harry was more than happy to soak up anything he could learn about the people that had brought him into the world and Sirius loved to tell the stories, so they could have possible stayed in there forever. If it wasn't for one small interruption.

"What's that?" Harry asked interrupting Sirius right in the middle of his sentence.

"I didn't hear anything."

"Filthy mudblood's infecting masters house…master would be so shamed…Kreacher will try and stop them…"

"Sirius what is that?"

"Kreacher." said Sirius almost like it was the most horrible swear word out there. "Don't you have cleaning to do you useless waste of air?"

Harry heard the muttering screech to a stop. Out of the corner of his eye something moved and the most ugly house elf Harry had ever seem emerged. Kreacher was a most unattractive greenish-scum color and his head as well as ears and nose where proportionally large to the point of unbalance. He walked leaned for ward like an old man with a Cain. His posture pronounced the largeness and heaviness of his head. Contrary to every other house elf Harry had ever met this one had small squinty eyes that made you think he was plotting something, which harry thought (judging by his mumbling) he probably was. Harry couldn't be sure in the dim light of the room but he was willing to bet that Kreacher's tea cozy was as dirty as the dinning room window.

"What does master want?" Kreacher said sound like he didn't care in the slightest what Sirius wanted.

"You know perfectly well that I want to never see you and for you to stop doing your oh so important activities long enough to clean a window. This room alone is a testament of how worthless you are." Sirius said to Kreacher.

Kreacher clenched his teeth. "Kreacher will do as master says…even though master is a disgrace to the noble name of Black."

Sirius only smiled. "You say that like it's a bad thing…get out of my sight!"

Both Harry and Sirius watched as Kreacher left in silence. Once the door was securely shut Harry spoke. "So that's you house elf?"

"He was my moms but now that she's finally gone I get the cretin. We can't get rid of him because he's heard too much about the order and Dumbledore insisted that it would be inhumane to order him to kill himself, but I think it would be better. He's gone mad from taking orders from the painting for too long and he's miserable." He was silent for a moment. "I guess we better get back, I'm sure the others are looking for you like nuts."

Harry sighed. He had been having fun talking to Sirius. It was almost like having someone…

"Yeah I guess your right."

When Harry appeared again he realized that he had been locked in the dinning room for close to four hours. He blinked as he tried to adjust to the light.

When Mrs. Weasley got a look at him she gave Harry a great big hug. "We were getting worried about you dear. There are some very unsavory artifacts that I was hoping you hadn't stumbled upon. Some of us where most insistent on finding out where you where…others insisted on letting you have your private time." She gave a disapproving look Sirius way as she said this.

Sirius made his face carefully sans expression. "I found him hiding in the dinning room.. That place is practically covered in dust and dark as hell."

"And you didn't see fit to inform me when you knew where he was?"

Fred cackled with glee, breaking off the confrontation that was sure to come. "And what could young, 15 year old Harry possibly have been doing in a quite, dark room all alone?"

George wiggled his eyebrows suggestively to emphasize the point. And Harry felt his cheeks pinken in mortification.

Sirius smiled at his godson's embarrassment. "What else? His homework."

The men in the room burst out laughing while Hermione beamed and quizzed Harry on what he had been studying.

Harry received another amazing cake from Mrs. Weasley that night, as well as his favorite meal. He had been touched that she had remembered. And he fell into bed happy and stuffed at 10pm (you'll be cleaning extra hard because you got today of better get to bed early!).

Within 15 minutes Rons snoring took over the room. Clearly Ron had been more tired then he had let on with. The early bedtime had annoyed the red head and for a good 10 minutes had argued with his mother but in the end, as always, Mrs. Weasley won out.

Harry was too high on his best birthday ever to even think about sleep. He was busy thinking about all the information he had learned about his parents when a hand came out of no where and covered his mouth.

He tried to scream but the hand pushed down harder and another pair of hands stilled his squirming. His mind was racing. How could Voldemort have gotten in to Grimmauld place? Wasn't the secret keeper Dumbledore himself? He could practically see the evil red eyes delighting in his kidnap.

"Calm down laddie…its gorge and forge."

Harry stilled and took a breath of fresh air as the hand was lifted. "Don't do that! You scared the shit out of me!"

Harry was quickly out of bed confronting the twins, who had the audacity to look not the least bit ashamed.

"Sorry mate-"

"but it was-"

"the only way."

"We couldn't have you waking up precious Ronnikins"

"The tour of the Weasley wizarding weezes is only for you."

"No way we were letting Ron shove is way in."

Harry had had trouble keeping up with who was talking but he understood everything they had said…and he had to agree. If Ron had heard about Fred and George showing him their jokes he would have insisted on coming along or thrown a fit if they had refused to bring him.

He had completely forgotten about the promise that the twins had given him a week ago, but he found himself becoming excited almost instantly. "How did you get in here with out me hearing you?"

One of the twins smiled. "Not here mate…follow us."

Harry rolled his eyes. He understood the need for secrecy (especially with Mrs. Weasley wondering around) but Ron was out cold and they were going tell him anyway…and it's not like the jokes where the secrets of the queen herself.

He followed the twins as quietly as he could (although he sounded like a hurricane compared to the red heads) all the way to their room.

When he got there he could see nothing that would indicate that there was a contraband (at least in the Weasley household) joke shop being run from the room. It was slightly bigger then the room Harry and Ron occupied and a picture of, what Harry supposed was, famous witch singer on the wall. As Harry watched however the twins where pulling stuff out from under their beds whispering spells that had a shelf of sorts coming down from the ceiling that Harry had not seen before and things coming out from the floor pieces. He looked at the arrays of colorful joke pieces mixed with pieces of parchment that contained endless drawings of idea and his mouth dropped.

"It's Ok to talk I put a silencing charm up." Said Fred

"This is amazing! Absolutely brilliant!"

They shot him identically pleased grins.

"Seriously though, how did you get into my room without me hearing you?" Harry didn't want to get mad at the twins but it had disturbed him greatly that someone could sneak up on him that easily.

"Easy young Harry." Said George, or at least that's what his pajamas said but who could really tell? George had bent down and removed something from his foot. " This is a silent sneak. It fits on you foot and all the movements you make go silent. Like footsteps and that type of stuff. Of course if you throw something it won't work very well…but for just wandering around the school at night." He shrugged and held out the product to Harry.

It was blue and looked like a padding of a shoe. He squished it expertly and discovered that it was soft so it would be comfortable to walk around in.

Fred continued. "That and we put a silencing charm in your door so that you wouldn't hear a creak."

Harry nodded. "Cool."

"Keep it…it will adjust to the size of your foot."

"Thanks."

"Not a problem." Said George "now let us to move on to the next product."

By the time Harry returned to bed he could successfully skip class, sneak throughout the school, prank his worst enemy and a number of other things. Harry was dizzy with the thought that that was not even all the twins joke products.

Within minutes he was asleep.

_The room was sparsely decorated and badly lit. The curtains where long and black…ripped in some places but not so badly shredded that anyone form the outside could possibly see in. all the light was radiating from a fireplace in front of him. One of his servants was supposed to be keeping the fire up but it was dwindling slightly. He barked at him to fix it and the chubby balding man raced to bring the flames up. Just to be sure he sent his servant a crucio…what was the use of a servant who didn't do your bidding more than just sufficiently? Was he not the most powerful wizard in the world? Did he not deserve more than sufficient? _

_He tapped his long, skinny fingers on the arm of the chair…no thrown he was sitting in. He had never been a patient man but he did understand the necessity of it…loath it as he did but now was a time for patience._

_He smiled slightly…not a real smile but more of a slight up turn of the edges of his mouth. Today he was going to receive some very good news indeed if he was patient. _

"_Master."_

"_What is it Wormtail? I wish not to be disturbed."_

"_Nickson is back with his report."_

_Instantly his mood improved._

"_Well what are you waiting for let him in!" _

_There was noise of scuffling, a door opening and a new man entering the room. _

"_Come forward where I can look at you."_

_The man moved around the room so that his master could see him. The man was young no more than twenty. He was handsome with a nicely sculpted jaw, dark brown hair and the type of annoyance reflected in his eyes that some women found attractive._

_He was new. That was one of the reasons he had gotten his assignment. There was no way potter could possible recognized Nickson as the deatheater he was and he was active enough that he could hide easily. _

_But new was not always good. This boy obviously still had much to learn. _

"_Bow." _

_Nickson's nee's buckled like a force had pushed him to the floor and he whimpered upon impact. The dark lord ignored his followers discomfort like a light breeze._

"_What is it you wish to report?"_

"_Potter is not there he is gone."_

_His lip drew back in distaste. "Do you have any idea where he went. How did you not notice his leaving?"_

"_No m'lord I don't know where he went and I-I seemed to have missed his leaving." _

_His eyes narrowed. " How is it that you missed it? Did I not specifically tell you to watch potters house with the up most care for the past month?" _

"_Yes m'lord you did…however I was tired I could not stay awake all day…I slept out side the house I was sure I would hear if Potter came by…"_

_His Happy mood gone, He hit Nickeson with a crucio. He left it for a good 5 minutes before stopping. "You imbecile! How dare you sleep on you assignment! Because of you today's festivities must be canceled! We cannot get into the house if Potter is no there! His blood connects me to the house! He needs to be there! It is unacceptable that you not notice his leaving!"_

_Voldemort could feel his anger for Potter mount. The boy had escaped him again! How dare he! He hated Harry Potter. _

Harry shook violently in his bed. Never before had he felt such raw hate. His scar burned then exploded on pain. Harry convulsed and screamed. It felt like his head was being torn open or a crucio was concentrated to his scar. Threw his pain he could see Nickleson scream to the punishment he was getting for failing in his task.

"HARRY PLEASE WAKE UP! PLEASE!"

Harry woke to the sound of Hermione screeching. He could see her near the doorway being held back by Remus. Tears where flowing freely down her cheeks and she seemed truly distressed. Ginny seemed to be in a similar state with Mr. Weasley holing her back. Ron was sitting on his bed looking white faced and scared.

Harry barley seemed to notice these details as he tried to calm his aching head through the concerned, rushed talking of everyone else. Someone grabbed his shoulder.

"Harry honey it's Mrs. Weasley come with me dear will get you something for your head."

Harry followed without a thought…something for the pounding in his head sounded _so_ nice. Mrs. Weasley rapped her arm around him to help navigate him and hold up some of his weight…which he felt very grateful for. For some reason he felt weak like he had just played a hard game of quidditch and he couldn't see very well through the headache.

Mrs. Weasley took him to what seemed to be a small library and lay him down on a couch. She left for a minute to get his potions. He sat up as she came back in and downed the potions in one gulp. Instantly the worst of the pain lessened although there was still a dull pounding.

"There now feel better?"

"Yeah lots, thanks Mrs. Weasley."

She smiled at him and rapped her arm around his shoulders in a motherly gesture that Harry wasn't sure how to respond to. "No need for thanks, I'm just glad you feel better. We where all so worried."

"Sorry that I woke everybody up." He offered. His uncle would have been furious at such an interruption of a good nights sleep, however Mrs. Weasley shushed him.

"Nonsense dear. Now Harry I hate to ask you, but it is very important that we know what you saw."

Harry quickly explained the dream not really wanting to go into too many details. As the realization of what exactly Voldemort had been plotting dawned on him he started to feel shaky once more.

"And you've never felt this pain before, even though you have had similar dreams before?" she asked

Harry nodded. "But they where never as long as this one…more like just small flashes of what was happening…this one was longer. He hates me so much." Harry whispered.

Mrs.Weasley ran her fingers through his hair in a comforting gesture and pulled his head to her shoulder. "Well I expect he hates everyone. Thank you for telling me."

Harry shrugged. "Mrs. Weasley where's Sirius?" He had felt such a connection to Sirius that afternoon. It had been almost like had a father or someone to look out for him and suddenly he wondered why Sirius wasn't there with him. Worried about him.

He felt the woman holding him sigh. The breath that escaped her lips ruffled his already messy black hair. "Harry dear, he didn't deal so well with your dream. He was terribly upset but…he just got out of Azkaban and he was a rec.…I felt he wasn't sound enough to see you…he was too lost in his own thoughts.

"oh." Suddenly Harry felt tired and in pain and alone and he wanted nothing more then to disappear.

Mrs. Weasley held him tighter.

Harry let the tears fall unchecked.

A/N: Sorry about the long wait. I hope you found it worth it! Justone little notice: I will be posting how the chapters going and other little things on my Author space above wheremy stories are. I'll delete what I wrote every time I post a new chapter, so if your wondering what'sgoing on please checkon there.

Next chapter the Hogwarts express and opening feast (unless I get to long winded.).

Now that some real action has started to happen any review you give would be greatly appreciated.

Please, please, please review and thanks for reading!


	4. you don't always get what you want

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter four: You don't always get what you want 

The couple of days after Harry's dream had been awkward for Harry. Right after his dream an impromptu order meeting had been called and Harry was still a bit annoyed that he had not been allowed to go (even though at the time he had been relieved because he had wanted nothing more than to go to sleep). None of the adults had told him what had gone on in the meeting other then that they had discussed his vision, but that had been obvious. Harry was left wondering if they had sat and discussed how much of a cry baby he was.

His friend's however were a completely different matter. Hermione had babied him for a few days after the vision and tried repeatedly to get him to talk about it until he had told her on no uncertain terms to cut it out. Ginny had tiptoed around him and seemed nervous to be in his presence with out an adult there for a good week. Ron had gone a completely different rout and tried to pretend that it had all never happened, although he had taken to the habit of never falling asleep before Harry. The twins had gone over board on their pranks, which was perhaps the only reaction that Harry didn't mind, however it drove Mrs. Weasley mad.

But perhaps the most troubling side effect of the dream was one that still troubled him even almost one month later. He understood why Mrs. Weasley had kept Sirius away from him that night. Sirius was still recovering from Azkaban in many ways and his reaction to seeing Harry the morning after the dream was so bad it left him with nothing but gratitude that Mrs. Weasley had done what she'd done. Remus had even told Harry that Sirius had seemed to suffer some sort of panic attack upon seeing Harry in such a state. However that did not cure the separation he now felt towards his godfather. Harry could talk to Sirius, he could joke with him and remenis with him, but he could never talk to him about the war that was such a part of his life. Harry found himself almost afraid to go to Sirius and discuss more difficult subjects for fear for upsetting him. For a brief moment in time Harry Potter had felt like he could talk to someone, about anything, but now he knew that it was not so. There was no other adult that Harry could even imagine going to talk to, not even Mrs. Weasley who's shoulder he had cried on the night of the dream. She was nice enough but she had her own children to take care of, as did Mr. Weasley and Remus had his own problems and he was so close to Sirius he was sure to mention things to his friend.

So Harry kept to himself.

It was now over a month after his dream and Harry was busy checking that he had packed everything for his trip back to Hogwarts later that day. Ron was grumbling on the other side of the room as he checked his trunk about "homework" and "evil teachers." As Harry took one last look around the room he realized that for the first time he would be sad that a summer was ending. Grimmauld place had felt more like home then the Dursley's ever had.

"BOYS! HURRY UP! WE'LL BE LATE!" bellowed Mrs. Weasley from the bottom of the stairs.

Harry smiled. Mrs. Weasley had kindly bought all their things the week after they had gotten their letters. Ron and the other Weasley children had complained about not being allowed to go to Diagon ally, however Harry had thought it was magnificent. Never before had an adult bought him his things so according to him shopping for one's self was over rated. His aunt had only given him hand me down's, so the idea of someone going to buy something with Harry in mind made him feel thought about.

Harry shut his trunk and secured Hedwig in her cage before moving to the door.

Lugging his trunk down the stairs had turned out to be a bit of a challenge but he managed well enough. By the time he was at the bottom of the stairs the familiar rush of returning to school was starting take hold, although it still held a touch of the previous sadness.

Mrs. Weasley was going over everything Ginny needed to pack and Mr. Weasley seemed to be giving the twins a speech on their behavior throughout the school year. Harry moved to stand next to Remus further down the hall.

"Where's Sirius?" He asked, just because Harry had been having problems with his godfather lately didn't mean he wanted to miss saying goodbye.

"Sulking in his bedroom like a four year old." Remus said with a rye smile. "He doesn't want you kids to go back to school. I don't thinks he fancy's an empty house."

Harry frowned. " But your living here, and the Weasley's too…not to mention the order people popping in and out."

Remus sighed. " I'm leaving first thing tomorrow morning. There's an assignment I have with the negotiations with the werewolves and then I'm to stay in Italy to get allies from outside the country. I'll try and stop by for Sirius but…who knows when I'll get the time? I believe Molly and Arthur are moving back to the Burrow once you kids get back to school. Arthur will be at work full time and can you imagine Sirius and Molly locked in this house alone together all day?"

Harry shivered as he thought about the millions of fights that would be sure to break out. " I guess I'll go say bye then."

Harry glanced at his watch as he walked up the stairs to his godfather's room and quickened his pace. They only had 45 minutes to load the car, get to the platform and on the train. The door to Sirius room was shut so Harry knocked and waited a moment before opening the door. Sirius was sitting on a rocking chair near the window looking glum. He didn't seem to have heard Harry's knock.

"Sirius," the older man looked up from his perch. " I just thought I'd come say bye before I leave for school."

Sirius snorted and turned back to the window. "Bye then."

Harry bit his lip. He felt profoundly uncomfortable like he had done something wrong. "Right, so I guess I'll see you at Christmas break. Bye."

Sirius made a noise, that Harry took as a affirmative and he shut the door quietly. The fifth year walked back to the entranceway feeling guilty, even though he knew he had no reason that he should. It wasn't like Harry had a choice about going to school, was it?

Remus took one look at Harry as he came down the stairs and seemed to read the boys' mind. The werewolf placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Don't worry about him. He gets like that sometimes. Your dad used to say that Sirius had worse monthly changes then I did. I reckon that you should just take his attitude as an indication of how much he that he likes having you around."

Harry smiled softly. "I guess I should go put my trunk in the car."

Harry froze momentarily upon walking outside.

The Dursley's owned two cars. One for uncle Vernon to drive to and from work everyday and one for aunt Petunia to putter around town with. There had been much talk (and pleading on Dudley's part) about getting a third car for Harry's cousin to drive now that he was going to be of driving age within the year.

Both of said cars where sitting in the on Grimmauld road waiting to be filled with _wizards _and _witches_ on their way to a school that _teaches_ them _magic_. It was like Harry had stepped into an alternate universe and the overly normal world of Privet Drive and the overly strange world of magic combined.

When it became apparent that the cars were not some weird type of daydream, Harry began to move towards them with caution. He was silently praying that his aunt or uncle was not sitting in the driver's seat.

The teen let out a sigh of relief when Tonks emerged from the front and came towards him. She took his luggage and moved towards the trunk. Harry followed trying to make his tongue stop feeling so heavy to let him form words.

"Why are Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunias cars here?" Harry was relatively sure that this had not been his relative's idea.

"Oh no one told you?" she said sounding somewhat surprised. "Well if Arthur had asked for a ministry car like he did a couple years ago it would have arisen suspicion and someone…undesirable could have found out where the car was set to pick us up. From there it would have been easy enough to find out if Harry Potter was with them." Harry nodded understanding that this could put the order's whereabouts and himself in danger.

Tonks lifted the trunk and cursed like a sailor when the heavy thing landed on her foot. Harry rushed to her side to help her lift the next time and they successfully managed to place it in.

Tonks wiped her forehead and continued explaining. "Molly told us all what a disaster the muggle taxi's had been so Dumbledore came up with this, they where very accommodating after a talk with him."

That made perfect sense. Surly the Dursley's had not wanted to hand over their cars but they where no fools. Vernon and his wife new power when they saw it, normally they sought out power and sucked it up to gain better standing in the community. They might not have liked what the headmaster was saying but they where not fool enough to not cooperate.

Harry, Ron and Hermione got one car (Tonks drove), and Ginny, Fred, George and Mr. And Mrs. Weasley crammed into the other.

With only ten minutes to spare they made it to Kings Cross. Mrs. Weasley herded them along swiftly and expertly. Getting through the barrier to platform nine and three quarters was tricky due to the size of the party, but they managed…or if they hadn't one muggle had certainly had the shock of their life.

Mrs. Weasley kissed Harry soundly on each cheek before he got on the train with one minute before the express started to move.

They're where no empty compartments but there was one that occupied only Neville, their fellow classmate.

"Hey, Mind if we sit here?" Said Harry as he slid the door open.

Neville jumped and turned away from the window. "S-sure. How was your summer?"

"Not to bad. You? " Harry responded as he lifted his trunk to the luggage holders above the seats.

Hermione squealed and Harry nearly toppled over with his luggage.

"Oh my god Neville you got prefect!" Hermione cried. "That's so great! I've been wondering who it would be. I'm so glad it's you!"

Harry turned in time to see Neville try and hide his blush. "That's great mate. Congrats."

"Yeah great." Ron said rather moodily.

Harry noticed Hermione give a disapproving glare to the redhead and Neville's smile fade. Silently he cursed Ron While rolling his eyes and mouthing 'idiot' to Neville, making the boys lips turn up a bit again.

"Well come on Neville we mustn't sit around here." Hermione said as she grabbed his hand and made for the door. "We have to report to the prefects compartment. I wonder what we'll have to do? I've been reading up about the past achievements of prefects…"

Harry shook his head and felt a tang of sympathy for his roommate who would surly be listening to Hermione until the cows came home.

He sat down across from Ron and watched as his best friend ruffled through papers to find something.

"I can't believe Neville is a prefect." Ron said with a snort. "What a joke! Like anyone is going to listen to him."

It was clear that Ron was in a bad mood so Harry tried not to get too mad, although he still felt the need to defend his friend…even if there was a grain of truth to what Ron had said. "Your just jealous." Silence. "What are you looking for?"

"Potions essay. I still have 3 feet to write. Thank god Hermione left or I'd never hear the end of it." He made a face and started to talk in a high pitched voice. "Ronald I told you you wouldn't finish! I told you it was best to do the worst subjects first. But you never listen do you." He grimaced. "She's a bloody nightmare!"

Harry laughed. "But she was right…about you not finishing I mean."

Ron seemed to have found what he was looking for and he nodded glumly. "Yeah, but don't tell her I said that, it's the worst part of the whole mess. Honestly I don't know why I bother it's not like Snape's gonna pass me anyway."

The rest of the train ride passed quietly, as Ron's bad mood did not diminish, even when he had half heartily finished the essay. Hermione and Neville only reappeared about 15 minutes before they arrived at the station and Harry sighed when he noticed Hermione was still sour with Ron because of what he had said to Neville.

Why had he wanted to come back to school again?

The more he watched the first years sorting ceremony the more he insisted he had never been that small. "Look at how tiny he is." Said Harry to Fred, dutifully ignoring the squabbling going in between Ron and Hermione. "He's almost pocket sized."

"Ah Harry! If I remember correctly you were smaller than that." Replied Fred. I

"I was not!"

"You most certainly were. In fact you were down right adorable with that messy hair, big green eyes and these huge baggy clothes." Said Fred teasingly "and you were so lost and polite…it was soooo cute!"

Harry glared at him and opened his mouth to protest but was interrupted by Dumbledore standing and beginning his yearly speech.

"Good evening and welcome to another year of exciting learning!" Harry couldn't help but notice that for all the jolly air that Dumbledore was giving off he definitely looked tired. "First a needed reminder for all that the forbidden forest is prohibited as the name suggests. All though it was somewhat unimaginative the name certainly is practical. Mr. Flinch also would like me to remind you that a list of forbidden items is on his office doors, I urge you all to go have a look, several new merchandise have been added since last June." Dumbledore paused and clapped his hands. For some reason the gesture made him look so old and lost. The hall went still. "I know that many of you have been home for the summer and you're parents, as well as the media, have been telling you things different to the information given to you at the end of last year. I hope that you all remember Cedric and realize that many of the claims of a mistake on part of the tournament did not occur. lord Voldemort has in fact risen again. I have never hoped with such desperation that this information was not true, however no amount of hoping in the world can change a fact. Dark times are going to be had and I wish for you all to think had about choices that you make and stay close to your friends." He clapped his hands again but this time it was happy gesture as if shaking off the sadness of the previous topic. "On a happier note we have a new defense against the dark arts teacher. Please welcome professor Duggan."

Harry squinted to make sure that he was not seeing things. The Professor had not stood up and she was smiling and waving awkwardly from her seat as the students clapped. McGonagall grabbed Duggan by the arm and moved her to a standing position. She stood shyly at the front trying as hard as possible to take up the least room possible.

Seamus Whistled beside Harry. "She's young, Can't tell from here but I hope that she's pretty enough that I won't find too much trouble pretending to pay attention to her in class."

Harry nodded absently. What was Dumbledore thinking hiring such an obviously inexperienced person for the defense class at a time of war? She looked so tiny as she retook her seat squished between McGonagall and Dumbledore.

"Excellent! Well I see no more reason to with hold food to such an eager crowd! As Madame Maxine would surly say Bonne Apetite!

Food appeared and Harry heard a couple of first years down the table oooh, obviously muggleborns.

"What do you think of that?" said Ron as he filled his plate. "Us lads are finally gonna have something to appreciate during class."

"Just what I was thinking, Mate!" chimed in Seamus

"Honestly!" said Hermione "have you forgotten that we're here to learn not oggle the teacher!"

"Don't be so sore." Said Ron "You girls had your fun with Lockhart now it's our turn!"

Hermione blushed but stood her ground. "I'm just worried about how young she is! She looks about as old as some of the seventh years, someone that young can't have much experience. I wouldn't be surprised if Harry had more experience fighting Voldemort than that bird does."

Harry raised his eyebrows slightly. Normally Hermione never judged a teacher before having a class with them.

Ron rolled his eyes at her. "Well Harry has more experience in that sort of stuff then a trained aura. When it comes to you-know-who Harry gives Dumbledore a run for his money! You're just in a foul mood."

"_I'm _in foul mood!" Shrieked Hermione "that's rich considering how you talked to Neville!"

The rest of the supper continued in a similar fashion. Harry tried to stay out of the argument but couldn't deny that the experience of the new teacher didn't worry him. When Harry finally fell comfortably into bed in Gryffindor tower some time later he let his mind relax. Just for a moment he was going to forget that Ron and Hermione were driving him crazy, that the new defense teacher looked useless, that Sirius was a prat and that Voldemort had returned. Just for a moment so his brain could shut off and he could fall asleep.

Who was he kidding?

And so he lay in bed for hours just trying to stop thinking about what he was supposed to forget.

The next morning Harry felt anything but keen to start a new school year. He was tired and he was grumpy. So help his friends if Ron and Hermione decided to start up again. The breakfast table was unusually quiet when Harry sat down. It seemed that Ron and Hermione had come to some sort of agreement not to talk. Not wanting to break the silence, seeing as he was still partly sleeping, Harry grabbed a bagel.

Harry quickly discovered that Silence he could deal with but tension he could not cope with half as well. The scrape of his knife buttering his bagel was amazingly loud for something that was taking place in a room with a school full of students having breakfast. Ron was looking glum and half-asleep as he openly watched Harry as he scraped the knife back and forth. Hermione was trying to be discrete and was pretending to read her transfiguration book but Harry noticed that her eyes flickered back and forth from his knife and Ron.

Professor McGonagall gave them all a strange look when she handed them they schedule but thankfully didn't comment.

Harry looked at his timetable and resisted groaning and breaking the tense silence. First class was transfiguration, then he had Divination. That afternoon was Defense against the dark arts. The last thing he needed first thing was a class that he needed to concentrate in. He was side tracked from looking at his next day's classes with the arrival of the post. An owl dropped the daily prophet in front of Hermione and she put down her book to look at the front page. Before Harry had a chance to ask if there was anything he should know about in the paper a letter was dropped in front of him.

For a moment he was stunned, there weren't that many people he was in contact with outside of Hogwarts, but then he shook himself and opened the envelope.

Dear Harry,

I'm sorry I was such a prat yesterday. I guess I'm just gonna miss having you around. The big bad wolf talked some sense into me. Hope your first day of school goes well.

Please write back. I'm sorry about before.

Snuffles

"What Happened before?" said Ron, who had been reading over his shoulder.

Harry had never minded sharing all his mail with his friends before, so he couldn't really blame Ron for looking in on his mail, however this letter was one he found he didn't want shared.

"Nothing." He snapped.

"Fine!" said Ron moving back to his bacon.

Hermione was giving him curious looks. It was obvious she wanted to know what was going on.

Harry decided that they could both just stew. He wasn't particularly fond of either of them at the moment and talking about Sirius was the last thing he felt like doing.

Mercifully, before a full blown fight broke out in the Great Hall Fred and George walked in looking like their normal selves… which could only mean that trouble was not trailing far behind.

Hermione took one look at their faces and obviously decided she did not want to hear it. "See you in class, I wanna ask McGonagall something before the whole class gets there."

Harry nodded at her. Ron pretended that he had not heard.

"So studious that one." Said George apparently not noticing the tension between his brother and friend.

"Disgustingly so, George." Said Fred taking Hermione's seat.

"Why are you two in such a good mood then?" asked Ron as he stabbed at his eggs. Harry though his friend was probably imagining that they were him, or maybe Hermione.

"Ah pranks dear brother."

"They are indeed a marvelous thing!"

"What have you been up to?" Harry asked, letting his curiosity get the better of him. "We haven't even been here a day."

"Just corrupting the youth." Said one

"Two of the first years were on so keen on finding Flinches office to read the list of prohibited items."

"We o-so kindly showed them the way."

"They were dead thankful, must have been muggleborn."

Ron laughed. "Idiots! Flinch is gonna think for sure that their up to no good."

"Precisely the point dear brother." Said George

Harry felt slightly uncomfortable. This just seemed way to close to muggle baiting to him. It wasn't the kid's fault that they didn't have an older parent or sibling to tell them that going anywhere near Flinches office would only leave you in detention. He remembered his own unease about Hogwarts and suddenly felt a little hot around the collar.

"I'll see you guys later, I have to go get my transfiguration stuff."

He walked to the common room quickly and in haze of reminiscing. Harry only roused himself from thought when he couldn't immediately find his textbook. At the time packing systematically had seemed to be such a waste of time, but the more of his items that he threw around the room the more he thought that maybe planning a bit wouldn't be so back next time. Hermione would be so proud.

Finally he found his book. He stuffed it in his nap sac and walked off to class feeling slightly triumphant.

Harry didn't get far though until the sound of someone crying met his ears. He hated crying, especially if it was from a girl. The few times that Hermione had teared up over something or other had made him feel useless. And if he was right that was defiantly a girl crying. However his curiosity overwhelmed his discomfort.

In the corner of the common room looked to be some first years. The bigger one was the one crying and she was indeed a girl. The smaller blond girl just looked angry.

"I can't believe we have a detention for doing what the headmaster said!" the smallest ranted. "We weren't doing anything wrong!"

"My mom would be so disappointed." Said the other as she wiped at her tears. "There's no way that I'm gonna make it through this magic school if everyone's like that!"

Harry felt a pang in his chest area and moved a little closer to the girls unintentionally.

"What do you want?" said the blond. "If you've come to laugh at us you can just go away!"

A smile played on his lips. This one had definitely been sorted into the right house. He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender and plopped down on the chair next to them. "Nope, no laughing. I was just wondering if everything was okay?"

The blond seemed to be sizing him up, but the other had not problem talking to him. "We went to go see that list, you know off all the stuff that we're not allowed? And the stupid caretaker and his cat gave us a detention! Just for looking! Said that we were up to no good! And then he threatened to hang us by our thumbs from the ceiling! And we weren't' even doing anything wrong!"

Harry's jaw tightened a bit. Boy we're Fred and George going to get a mouthful from him when they next met. "What are your names?"

"I'm Nikki and this is Arden." Said the smaller blond. "What's yours?"

"Harry." He answered. "Look, I'm sure you didn't do anything wrong. Flinch- that's the caretaker- is just like that. On my first week here he kept accusing me and my friend of being up to no good when we were really lost. Most students around here try and stay away from him…and Mrs. Norris his cat. Having a detention with him is normal. Most kids in your class will have at least one in the first couple of weeks."

"Well it's not fair!" said Nikki and Arden nodded.

"Well that's the way it is." Said Harry, funny how anything below Voldemort didn't seem that unfair to him anymore. "If I were you I'd make sure to stay away from Flinch for the next while."

Nikki seemed to be thinking what he said over. The intense look on her face reminded him eerily about Hermione when she was talking about house elves.

"I'll see you guys around later…I have class." Said Harry standing up. "Come to think of it so should you."

Arden shook her head. "The defense against dark arts teacher canceled our class."

Harry raised his eyebrow and filed away that information about the new teacher to contemplate in divination. "Whatever I gotta go. Don't worry so much about Hogwarts, most people around here aren't too bad. Once you get used to it you'll love it. Hogwarts is really a second home to a lot of us."

With that he left the room. He glanced at his watch as he walked and sped into a jog. He was almost 15 minutes late!

Panting he reached the transfiguration classroom. He took a moment to fix his rushed appearance before opening the door.

"Mr. Potter," said McGonagall from the front of the class. "How nice of you to join us. Five points from Gryffindor. This is your OWL year mister Potter and I sincerely hope, for your sake, that this type of attitude does not persist throughout the year. A detention will help you remember that."

"Yes professor." Harry said as he slipped into a seat next to Hermione and Ron.

"Where have you been?" whispered Hermione furiously.

Harry ignored her in favor of taking out his quill and notebook.

A/N: I am soooooo sorry. Really I have been so horrible with neglecting my writting duties for this story. I am still writting it and I still think it's one of my best yet so theres no time soon that I'll be stopping. Once school started I really just pushed writting aside so I could do the homework. I've been writting this for the past few days so now it is definatly back on my raidar.

The defense against the dark arts class is going to be next chapter for sure, what do you think of her so far? Before anyone asks yes I am a Ron/Hermione shipper and this will be notable in this story. Already their fighting because there both jealous that the other person dare look at someone else.

Anywho, please leave a review and I hoped you liked it! Thanks for reading!


	5. Authority Inquiry

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter five: Authority inquiry 

Harry was in a right mood by the time lunch rolled around. When Trelawney had not been predicting his imminent death and loss of sanity, he had contemplated the canceled first year class of the defense teacher. No matter which way he spun it this defense teacher looked and acted as if she would be completely useless when it came to any useful information on fighting Voldemort.

Ron was still refusing to talk to him. Hermione refused to talk to Ron. And Harry refused to talk to Hermione about Sirius not matter how much she prodded. All in all it made for a very silent lunch break.

The group of three seemed to be projecting some sort of bad mood because most of their other friends moved as far away from them as they could without seeming rude. Harry spent all of his meal listening to a painful conversation between Dean and Seamus about how good looking the useless defense teacher was, but by that point he would have listened to anything to get away from the tense atmosphere of his best friends.

All the Gryffindor fifth years walked to their defense class together. The teacher wasn't there yet, but they walked in and sat down. Harry took a seat in-between Ron and Hermione more out of habit then actual desire to sit there. It was another very awkward five minutes as they waited for the teacher to arrive. Whilst everyone around them was talking about possible reasons that the new teacher could be late the three friends sat in stony silence.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity Duggan showed up carrying an impossibly large pile of papers. Surely on the first day there couldn't be that much to lug around besides the attendance sheet? The class was silent as she warbled her way to the front and placed the papers in the desk in front of the black board. Once she turned to look at them Harry's worst fears were confirmed. Professor Duggan was indeed young and rather good looking compared to any other teacher at Hogwarts. Her hair was blond and pulled back in a messy bun that would make McGonagall wince and her face shone with an excitement to start the lesson.

"Sorry I was late." She said, "I had a bit of a time finding my way to the classroom. Poor Mr. Flinch mistook me for a student and gave me a talking to before I could convince him that I was in fact the new defense teacher."

She giggled to her self and the class stared back blankly. Noticing that her students weren't laughing with her she straightened up.

"Well then where to begin? I'm your new defense against the dark arts teacher and my name is Professor Duggan…but I suppose you already knew that." Still receiving no outward responds from her class she cleared her throat nervously. "Right, right….I guess I should do attendance then."

Harry watched in growing distress as the new teacher stumbled through their names, occasionally marking on the sheet if a student liked a certain nick name. From what he had seen so far this looked liked it would be another completely useless year of defense! If Harry could have his way Dumbledore would be strangled that very moment! What could that man possibly have been thinking?

"Harry…Harry Potter?"

He raised his hand and she stared at him for a long time before putting a check beside his name. "I've heard a lot about you. Professor Dumbledore said not to say anything but I must admit I'm a fan."

There was general snickering around the room and Harry heard Seamus whisper "Potters got another one for his fan club. I guess he won't have to worry about getting a good grade." If he could, Harry would have died in embarrassment at that moment in time.

"Ronald…Ronald Weasley?"

"Umm…it's Ron."

She marked it down on her sheet and turned back to the now very talkative class."Umm..If I could just have everyone's attention?"

Apparently she couldn't. Students were too busy talking to bother to stop. Harry joined in on the conversations, his ears going deaf to their new teachers continued attempts to get attention. When the chatter finally began to die down, some ten minutes later, Duggan looked very frazzled indeed. Her hair was falling out of her bun and her eyes were worried. Harry felt a small pang of guilt…that was until she opened her mouth again.

"Well I wasn't too sure what to start with. I didn't know what you guys knew, but eventually I thought that we could go over some blocking spells?"

Harry thought it was more of a question then an affirmation of what they were doing. Her arms were crossed like she was uncomfortable with them all looking at her and she licked her lips nervously. The class could smell her fear and were acting accordingly. Notes were being passed around and even Hermione's attention seemed to be wavering in the face of such indecision.

Duggan cleared her voice. "Right. So Harry, why don't you come up here to help me teach the class the spell?"

Everyone snickered again and Harry felt his cheeks go red on the way to the front of the class. He was really going to kill Dumbledore.

She smiled at him. "Professor Dumbledore told me that you were very good at defense against the dark arts, so this should be a snap for you."

Dean's voice carried from the back of Class. "Does she want Harry to help

her with a spell or go on a date with him? Maybe the rest of us should leave."

The teacher went red as she tried to send an angry look towards the back. Her imposing look defiantly needed work, thought Harry. Compared to Snape's it was like looking at a kitten glower.

"Quiet please. Pay attention. The spell I'm going to teach you is called protegio."

Harry's jaw almost dropped. He was a fifth year! He certainly knew Protego! He stared at her in amazement as she went into a detailed description on how to do the spell. It was no wonder she had cancelled her first class, if fifth years needed to learn protego then first years had nothing to learn.

As she explained the spell Harry glanced around the room, bored. Ron was sitting with his mouth half open looking stunned. Even Hermione wasn't taking notes. It seemed that the only person genuinely paying attention was Neville, who had had trouble with the spell since first year.

When she turned to Harry to have him try the spell in front of the class and he deflected her 'Rictusempra' flawlessly; he thought she might pee her pants in excitement.

"That was excellent mister Potter! I certainly didn't expect you to get the spell on your first try. You have an instinctual grasp of magic."

"Err…"

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Hermione's hand shoot in the air. If there was one thing that Hermione hated it was not learning when she should be. There was no doubt in his mind that she was about to set their new defense teacher straight in a rather painful manner.

Oblivious to the sudden perk in her student's interest, Duggan called on Hermione. "Yes, yes feel free to ask questions."

"Actually it's not a question." Said Hermione, only continuing after Duggan's encouraging nod. "We've done Protego before. Ages ago in fact, first year if I remember right. Last year we covered curses and our teacher even showed us the unforgivables."

Duggan's face was rapidly paling. It was clear to the whole class that she had no backup plan. Sensing their teachers distress the class broke into whispers while their teacher stuttered something about reviewing. Harry retook his seat and pulled the textbook towards himself dejectedly. This was the worst defense class ever. Even stuttering old Quirrell, who had been a lanky of Voldemorts, would have been a more welcome teacher. This woman in front of them did not seem to know the first thing about battle.

He opened the text to the first page expecting to be disgusted, but instead he was intrigued. The first chapter was all about strategy in a war. How to attack and how Dark arts were used even before battle broke out to subdue the light side. He read through the rest of the class barely even aware that for the first time in all his years at Hogwarts they were given a free period to do what they wanted.

By the time that the end of class rolled around Hermione was so mad at their teacher that she had completely forgotten that she was also mad at Harry and Ron. "I mean really what type of teacher lets her students do nothing! Nothing!! She was unprepared, uneducated and unreasonable. How are we going to have a chance to win against You-know-who with a teacher like that! Sure Seamus can talk all he wants about eye candy, but while he stares at her chest his IQ is steadily dropping. I swear if this class wasn't mandatory I'd…"

To Harry's surprise Ron was actually nodding with her. "What was Dumbledore thinking? That Twat wouldn't know an unforgivable if it hit her upside the head. I haven't looked at the book yet but I bet it's rubbish."

"Actually I think it's brilliant." Both Ron and Hermione froze in the middle of the hallway. "The book I mean, not Duggan. I read chapter one in class and it was bloody amazing. All this stuff about strategy and how dark arts is used in battles. "

Hermione looked skeptical. "You read a book voluntarily? And found it enjoyable?"

"Yes." Harry snipped. "I'm surprised you haven't read it."

Hermione blushed. "It took me longer than usual to read through my other texts and I left defense for last."

"Merlin help us," Said Ron. "If it takes Hermione a long time to do the readings then the rest of us might as well jump in the vanishing cabinet."

Hermione beamed at him.

Seeing that things had calmed down between the friends Neville tentatively made his way forward. "What'd you guys think about Defense class?"

"It was the worst class I have ever had at Hogwarts!" Said Hermione "Even Trelawney taught me more."

The boy's eyes went wide. Coming from Hermione that was probably the worst insult possible. They all stood numbly in the hallway. Hermione's cheeks had gone pink, but she had her head tilted defiantly as if daring someone to object to her.

"I'm trying to figure out how Longbottem made Prefect." Said a snide voice from behind them. "Aren't prefects supposed to have at least one brain cell? I would suggest that he seduced McGonagall if he looked at least half way decent."

All four friends spun to meet Malfoy head on. Harry supposed that because they had missed the yearly confrontation on the train it was destined to be done in the hallway. Neville stared uncomfortably in the eyes of his tormentor. Unfortunately it was all too obvious to Ron, Harry and Hermione that Neville had been asking the same question of himself.

Ron's ears were red with anger and he glared at Malfoy's Slytherin Prefect badge. "Neville earned his prefect badge by having a strong character that we all respect."

All three remaining Gryffindors looked slightly stunned at Ron's defense. Malfoy noticed their shock and smirked. "Come on, you don't actually respect this idiot? 10 Points from Gryffindor for your cheek Weasley. Speak nicely to your betters."

"Well at least we respect someone that's human." Shot Harry while holding onto Ron's arm to keep him from lunging.

"Now you're not even making sense. Ten points for…visual pollution, Potter."

Harry Heard Hermione let out a little screech about the abuse of prefects powers.

"That thing you call Voldemort isn't even human anymore. So much for pure-blood superiority…" Said Harry knowing that the slight to Malfoys beliefs would anger him.

The blonds face became more pale than usual. "How dare you…"

But Neville Interrupted him. " Crabbe, Goyle 10 Points each for visual pollution."

Just as Malfoys head looked as if it would blow off McGonagall rounded the corner. She gave them all a stern look and they scattered. The Gryffindors went up the stairs and the Sytherins proceeded downwards. Harry Heard Ron whisper "1-0 Gryffindor."

Duggan and Trelwaney may have let them off without homework but McGonnagall was not playing around. They already had to read the first assignment in their transfiguration text and do a summary of it for their next class on Wednesday. Harry sighed as he found himself doing homework on the first day of class. Normally he had at least a week before small assignments were given out. Ron was also miserably reading his text, but Hermione had finished her text summery an hour ago and was busy pursuing their defense text.

Harry was just staring to write his first paragraph when he was interrupted by Niki and Arden. The former had a look of determination on her face and the later looked sheepish.

"Yes? Aren't the two of you supposed to be in detention?"

At the mention of someone skipping out on their detention Hermione's head perked up from her text and Ron listened in, anxious for any reason to procrastinate.

Niki shook her head. "It was scheduled for Friday. But that's what we wanted to talk to you about. Me and Arden feel that it is unfair that students are handed out detentions for things like looking at the list of prohibited items. After listening to what you said about most students having a detention with Flinch in the first week for getting lost and stuff, we decided to take action. This is a petition to restrict Flinch to giving detentions that the headmaster has approved."

There was a thump as Hermione dropped her textbook. Ron's eyes had grown as large as saucers and Harry felt his eyebrows skim his hairline. The thought of taking on Flinch was extremely tempting, but also extremely dangerous. If Flinch got his hands on their petition every student who had signed could very well find themselves subjected to some ancient disciplining techniques. However if the headmaster agreed with them…well that would be the icing on the cake.

Hermione took the paper from the first year's hand and began pursuing the names. " All the fist years have signed."

Arden smiled. "We all think he's abusing his power. Jack told me that he got a detention today because he got lost and Flinch said he was up to no good."

"We are inviting the student body to write their own stories of unfair detentions by Flinch." Niki said, "We will attach this to the petition as proof of our claim."

Had he been that good a speaker in first year? Somehow Harry doubted that. They defiantly made a good point. Every student had a horror story related to Flinch. It was almost Hogwarts tradition to have a detention with the caretaker within the first week or two of class. Even Hermione had earned detention from him during their second week here.

Ron's face looked as if it would split in two from his smile. "I can't argue with logic like that. Pass it over so I can sign."

After a moments hesitation Harry also signed. Flinch already hated so there was nothing to lose.

Hermione seemed stuck between her respect for authority and doing what was right. She knew that Flinch was often out of line but she never questioned the teachers rights. "Alright I'll sign."

Ron let out a little 'whoop' of joy and the two first years beamed. "Thanks so much for your support."

Homework lay forgotten as the trio spent the rest of the night discussing the possible outcomes of the petition. Harry and Ron enjoyed describing more and more outrageous reactions from Flinch and Hermione lectured about the responsibility that came with authority. Harry was smiling and laughing with his house mates as he fell into bed around 11.

His dreams were strange and disjointed. He dreamt about being in a strange land, surrounded by a huge forest. The people there seemed to be exclusively brave soldiers from a valiant and long fight. In this strange land he was loved by everyone. He had a mother, who was decorated in jewelry and wore a long flowing blue robe. His father was strong and smart. Time seemed to pass very slowly there and the rules of logic were constantly being broken.

The dream wasn't disturbing or unpleasant so he resisted when he felt a slight pull to his consciousness. To his disappointment the tug became stronger and he was unable to resist any longer.

_The room was different then the last time. Things seemed to have been cleaned and replaced. His throne was now a proper place for his standing. The chair had been upgraded and placed on a platform. His Snake relaxed next to the fire and hissed in pleasure as he used some wandless magic to intensify the heat in the room. _

_The knock at the door came just in time. Pitty…He wouldn't be able to use Crucio…_

"_Enter." _

_Lucious Malfoy bowed in front of the Chair. His aristocratic robes became caked with dust at the knee's and He appreciated the sight of someone so high being reduced to groveling in his presence. _

"_Did you secure a meeting with the minister as I asked?" _

"_I have secured a meeting with the minister, but I was unable to meet him earlier then next Friday." _

_Voldemort hissed in displeasure."Crucio." _

_The word rolled of his tongue like a lovers name and he took a moment to appreciate the feelings of power before releasing the spell. _

_Lucious gasped for breath on the floor. _

"_What other news do you have for me?" _

"_I have managed to Imperius the foolish Weasley offspring working at the ministry." _

_Satisfaction moved through him. His plan would be completed…it would simply be delayed…but no matter. _

"_You may not be useless yet, luscious." _

"_Thank you, My Lord." _

_His long fingers tapped the chair. "You were almost late, next time be more punctual. Crucio." _

Harry woke with a gasp. He breathed deeply to calm his frantic heart. His fingers brushed his scar, it tingled but hurt nothing like it had last month at Grimmauld place. Why was this time different? What was going to happen to the minister at the meeting? Was there a way to break Percy from his imperius?

It was too much. He needed Dumbledore.


	6. Power and those too weak to seek it

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 6: Power and Those too weak to seek it

"So you're telling me that Dumbledore listened to you calm as you please at two in the morning and then sent you away with a lemon drop?"

Harry nodded at Ron and Hermione. He had been recounting his early morning conversation with the headmaster over breakfast for the past half hour. He had taken some artistic licence and left out the details of Percy being under the imperius curse. Dumbledore had said that he would deal with it and Harry was more than confident that within a week the Weasley would be back to his old self. In fact, by the time Harry had fallen back to sleep at night he had convinced himself that this might end in smiles, when Percy came back crying to his parents about Voldemort being back. There was no point in worrying Ron.

On the whole the meeting with Dumbledore had not lasted long and had seemed anti- climactic compared to the dream he had experienced. The headmaster had almost seemed as if he expected Harry's news. He had nodded to everything Harry had said and then calmly told him not to worry. Although he couldn't help being a bit concerned he had decided to have every faith in Dumbledore, after all it wasn't like Harry could do much anyway. Ron and Hermione had both seemed flabbergasted by his serene disposition after such a horrible night.

Hermione bit her lip. "I wonder why you didn't feel the Cuciatus this time around?"

"Beats me." Said Harry with a shrug "But I'm thankful I didn't."

"It just seems strange..."

Ron rolled his eyes. "I say don't question a good thing. It was downright scary last time it happened."

Hermione threw down her fork in frustration and snarled at Ron like an angry lion. "Don't you get it? If we learn why this one didn't give Harry the pain we can 

make sure that he never feels that again. So I don't know about _you two_ but _I'm _off to the library."

Ron and Harry called after her as she left, but it was no use. By the time the first class had come around Hermione would have taken out three books on curse scars.

Harry settled back into breakfast. Not having to worry about feeling the curciatus curse in his sleep sounded nice to him. If anyone could find an answer to a mystery it was good old Hermione. To distract himself from his nightmare Harry looked around. "Hey Ron, look at those two firs years. I think their passing around that petition to the other houses."

Ron turned in his chair to get a good look. "I wonder if they'll dare approach the Slytherin's? Look at Snape's face!"

Focusing back to the front of the room Harry looked at the teachers table. Most of the Hogwarts Professors were either reading the daily prophet or pursuing conversations with their colleges. Hagrid was heaping piles of eggs on his plate and McGonagall was pouring her second cup of tea. Clearly some of the teachers were having as much trouble re-adjusting to the school schedule as the students. Snape, however, stood out from the rest. His hawk eyes were focused on the students, more specifically Niki and Arden. His face alternated between disgust and a pronounced snobbery.

"Those two better watch out. Making enemies with Snape and Flinch can only lead to trouble."

Harry couldn't help but nod. He was a living example of the difficulties it caused.

Unfortunately for Harry his first class of the day was potions, which meant that Snape could take out his anger on his favourite victim. The Gryffindor's spent the class in a state of high stress, while the Slytherins relaxed and chuckled at their teachers biting comments. Poor Neville received more attention than normal when Snape spotted the shining Prefects badge on his robes.

"It is a mark on the stupidity of Gryffindors that Longbottem appeared to be the most worthy of the position." Sneered Snape

Draco Malfoy couldn't help but add to the fire. "Professor, haven't you heard that they respect him?"

"Indeed?" Said Snape looking Neville up and down like an ingredient he would rather not touch. "Well Gryffindor's are notorious for respecting people without any real power and with a surprising lack of thinking skills, Therefore I suppose Longbottem fits the build. "

One side of the classroom roared with laughter and Neville looked about ready to dive into his cauldron and disappear. Hermione was whispering supportive things to her fellow prefect from the corner of her mouth so Snape couldn't see.

"I often find that Gryffindors so frequently undermine authority that the position within that house would mean very little." Continued Snape, pretending to be oblivious to the glares he received on behalf of Neville. "Passing around petitions to limit their betters authority, how arrogant. No doubt Potter had a roll."

Harry froze in his potion making. How did Snape know about the petition? As far as he knew the girls had not said anything about it to any teachers yet. Unless someone tipped of the teachers?

"Potter, did I ask you to stop working? 15 points from Gryffindor."

By the end of potions class Harry had just about decided that any job that required potions skill would be crossed of his list. There was no way he could stand two more years of potions when it wasn't even required. Not only had he botched his potion royally but he had lost Gryffindor almost 50 points. Ron seemed to have come to a similar conclusion and they complained about the class the whole way to History of magic. Hermione trailed along behind, offering reasons why they should not 'stunt their future', but eventually gave up and went to offer Neville some support.

Throughout the years at Hogwarts Harry had learned to count on History of magic as his easiest class. He never paid any attention in lectures, preferring to sleep 

through them instead or perhaps finish some last minute homework for another class. Professor Binns homework assignments were quickly done and most of the time Harry simply re-worded the textbook to get an acceptable grade. Hermione was the only person who still took notes in that class, but Ron had caught her once proof reading a potions essay. In short he had expected history of magic to a break between potions and lunch for the rest of the semester.

How wrong he was.

Walking into the classroom Harry could see Hermione sitting up front saving them a seat. Ron rolled his eyes, but they both moved forward figuring that in Binns class it didn't matter if you were in the front or back you always got your sleep in. Hermione's bushy hair was covering her face as she leaned closer to the page in an amazingly large book.

"_What_ are you reading?" said Ron falling into the seat next to her.

Her eyes moved upwards, but still had that vacant expression in them that she got when she had been concentrating hard on something. "Sorry?"

"What are you reading about?" repeated Harry and he watched as her eyes lit up when she could share knowledge.

"It's a book I found in the library on curse scars. I was just reading about why certain scars become scars in the first place. Hopefully this will help us understand more about Harry's dreams."

Before she was able to explain further Binns floated in through the blackboard and she rushed to put her book in her backpack. She had already set up her quill and parchment so that she didn't miss a moment of the lecture searching for materials in her bag. Harry noticed that she had even setup a backup jar of ink.

Their teacher look slightly startled to see students in his classroom, as if he had come in to the classroom throughout the summer and no one had informed him of the school year beginning. He floated so that the bottom part of his body was lost in the wood of his desk.

"For most of you this will be the last year you will be studying History of magic." The ghost frowned at this; it had been decades since someone chose History of Magic as a NEWT course. No wonder the only teacher capable of the job was long departed. "And given recent events the headmaster has asked that I focus on more recent history. We will be discussing the time frame from the rise of Grindelwald to the defeat of Voldemort. Now, When Grindelwald was a youth the ministry had just passed several important laws that had a strong personal effect on him. One of which..."

Harry's ears were rushing so loud that he didn't even notice that the rest of the class was taking out note writing material. They were going to be talking about his own history as much as they would be talking about the history of Gindelwald and Voldemort. Part of him had a sudden urge to suck up the knowledge. Learning about Voldemorts first rise could only help him understand more about the problems to come and about the life that his parents had lived. Another part of him flinched away from the information. He could picture Draco Malfoy's face now when they began learning about Voldemort and he could hear the snooty comments from the Slytherins about his parent's death. How embracing was it to have this talked about in front of all his peers?

He passed through the rest of the class in a daze. He hoped that Hermione would give him her notes, but he guessed that she would. The moment the bell rang he bolted for the door. He wanted to look at his history of magic text. Molly Weasley had bought all his school supplies and Harry had never even thought the read the titles of his textbooks.

He reached his dorm in record time and pushed open his trunk. After moving over some things that had been sitting on top he found what he was looking for. The book felt heavy and was bigger than his past textbooks for the same class. It had a blue cover and the title was written in sharp black ink. _The Great Wars: An in Depth Look at The Rise and Fall of Gindelwald and You-Know-Who. _

Harry dropped it back in his trunk. If he was going to read a book on Voldemort he would have much preferred that they use his name. Had the world conspired 

against him? In one instant his most relaxing class had become one of his most stressful. He just hoped that he wouldn't have to write an essay on himself.

Harry made it in time for lunch to eat quickly and run to class. Although neither Ron nor Hermione had said anything about history of magic, he was thankful that idle time was not allotted for passing comments. Charms class was the last class of the day and he was looking forward to Flitwick's unique relaxing and intensive teaching style.

As expected Flitwick did not lecture them on the difficulty of the Newts and grill them with hard questions like McGonagall, nor did he jump right into a complex new assignment like Snape, nor did he give them something too easy like Duggan, instead he divided them into pairs to for an intense memory test on the charms of the year before. They were required to perform all the important spells from the year before, the partner's were for help clearing away the cobwebs in their brain. Each group was given a pillow to help performing certain spells.

Harry was paired with Seamus, which was fine by him. Ron was _useless _at an assignment like this and Hermione was a little _too_ useful. Luckily for Harry his partner was over talking about Duggan's rack and they were able to jump right into what they were supposed to be doing.

"Do you remember the wand movements for the summoning charm?" Asked Seamus, looking at the list.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I had that one." Said Harry, remembering his hours of practice to summon his broom for the first task.

Seamus nodded. "Okay why don't we start with that then? Flitwick didn't say anything about going in order."

"Alright." Agreed Harry, taking his position to curse Seamus. He faced his classmate and went over the wand movements for a moment before preparing to cast. Seamus held the pillow in his hand several steps away from him.

The whole thing seemed to happen in slow motion. One moment Harry was casting the spelling, moving his wand in the familiar motions and pronouncing the 

words carefully. The next he felt a surge of magic escape him so powerfully that he instantly felt fear. Something was exploding from within his very being. He felt like a pop can that had been shaken vigorously and then someone had opened the cap. He failed to draw in breath and could only ride out the emotion. He knew instinctively that he could not control it and that Seamus would be hit.

The charm had taken on a visible quality to it and Harry could see the gold light speed towards his class mate. It hit the pillow causing it to explode in feathers, that all rushed toward him. Harry ducked as the millions of feathers raced at him. They seemed to hover above him for a second and then collapsed on him. Swiping feathers out of his hair, Harry looked up to see Seamus lying on the floor.

Harry held his breath when he noticed that the Irishman wasn't moving. In fact his head seemed to have collided with the wall and a small pool of blood was forming in the shape of a distorted halo. Had he_ killed_ someone?

Flitwhick and Hermione were the first ones on the scene. They quickly cleared an area around the fallen classmate and put pressure on the wound. Their teacher levitated the dead weight to the air. "Ms. Granger you're in charge. Mr. Potter follow me to the hospital wing to explain what happened."

Harry shook himself out of his stupor and followed his teacher without question. The other kids in the class were looking confused and upset. No one would look Harry in the eye.

The walk to the hospital wing seemed longer then Harry's entire summer. Flitwick didn't speak, but the' swich swich' of his robes made up for the lack of noise. Seamus looked pathetic. His head bobbed at awkward angles and his face became more and more white, while a temporary tourniquet became more and more red.

Madame Pomfrey seemed to have been waiting for them. She rushed into the room and had things under control in a number of seconds. She lay him down, fixed the cut in his head with a simple spell and applied a cream over the scar. Seamus color seemed better and he looked more as if he were sleeping and less as if he were dying.

"Now that I've cleaned that up, what was this about?" The matron's eyes landed on Harry standing out of the way.

Flictwick nodded. "Exactly my question."

Harry picked at his shirt and avoided their eyes. "Will he be okay?"

Pomfrey's expression softened and she rolled her eyes in exasperation. "I have dealt with much worse than a little concussion and cut in my time Mr. Potter. He will be fine."

"I didn't do anything I swear." Said Harry seeing their disapproving looks. " We were only practicing spells like normal. I was doing the accio spell and I called over the pillow, but this huge burst of magic just came out of nowhere."

Flitwick looked sceptical. "I will wait until I have a word with Mr. Finnigan before I decide your punishment and you will sit the rest of the class out. Understood?"

In the end Harry decided that sitting out the rest of the class was a blessing in disguise. For the second time that day he was a person of interest and this prevented people from even talking to him. He was ordered to read his charms textbook but he couldn't get through even one page. He was so confused about the surge of power he had felt. Nothing liked that had ever happened to him before. Harry had always considered himself to be about average power, but that spell had been frightening in power. He shivered when he thought about the disaster that could have happened had Harry started with the banishing spell. At least Seamus had been okay in the end and hopefully it wouldn't happen again. Maybe his magic had been so powerful because it had been itching to get out...it _was_ the first time he had done magic since before the summer...

"But this has never happened before on the first day of school. So there must be another reason."

Harry sighed and picked at his dinner. As usual Hermione was able to shoot down his best hypothesis in a minute. They had been discussing the events of their charms class since the end of class, but Hermione had asked so many questions 

about what had happened they were only just getting to why it might have happened.

Ron groaned. "Another thing to research."

"Not necessarily." Said Hermione, to both the boys' surprise. "I think Harry should do some more small spells to see how it turns out before we go looking for answers. It could have been a fluke. Some spells require more strength than others, it's possible that Harry just put to much strength into an easy spell because he hadn't cast in so long."

"Okay that's easy enough." Harry said, already making a list of spells that he could try in his head.

"Now that that's solved," Ron interrupted "Can you help me with potions tonight, Hermione? I don't understand anything about the stupid new potion."

Hermione shook her head. "Sorry Ron, I have rounds with Neville tonight."

"Tomorrow then?"

"I can't. I made an appointment with Duggan to ask her some questions about the text. Really I just want to feel her out, you know. And then I have a prefect meeting. Neville and I, as new prefects, have to decide how to divide our responsibilities."

Ron looked crestfallen and Harry, sensing a pissy mood coming on, made a break for it. "I have something that I want to get done so I'll see you both later."

They both waved him off, barely noticing his departure. Harry slowly made his way to his dorm room already mentally composing what to write in his letter to Sirius. Should he mention his scary dreams? Or would that be too painful for his godfather? After all over the summer he had not taken things very well.

Should he mention the anxiety he was having over the coming year? The combined stress of worrying about Voldemort, worrying about defence lessons and being a topic in their history of magic class was already beginning to wear on him. Although, he supposed, it couldn't be worse than the year before where he 

was forced to participate in the triwizard tournament. The difference between the previous year and this one seemed to rest on the encroachment on his personal space. His dreams, his classes and his friends: everything was shifting around him, and he didn't know how to handle it.

Growing up at the Dursleys had taught him how to live a predictable life. Harry could always predict which actions would get him thrown in the cupboard, a night without food or perhaps a slap to the face. His Aunt had lead a strictly 'normal' life and it had always seemed that normal meant scheduled. They woke every morning by seven, went to school by eight, left school at 2:30, did chores until 4:30, did homework until six, had supper and went to bed at nine. In the beginning one of the reasons he had loved Hogwarts so much was that escape from the predictable, but now Harry found he would appreciate a little more predictability. Certainly being able to predict Voldemorts next action would make him feel more prepared.

Harry sat down on his bed with a parchment and quill and shut his curtains. He did not want to be interrupted. It would be so easy to write to Sirius complaining about his life, but the last thing he wanted was Dumbledore coming to tell him his letter had caused his Godfather to have a nervous breakdown. Decision made Harry dipped his quill and began to write.

Dear Snuffles,

Don't worry about before. The first day of school was fine. I'm not too sure about the new defence teacher yet, but other than that it's back to the same old routine. Hermione's already got us studying for finals.

Harry

He stared at what he had written. It _really_ was too bad Sirius couldn't be that stability he was looking for...


	7. overlooked

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 7: Overlooked

During the next week things seemed to slow down for Harry. Everyone was settling into school. It was always a little Jarring to get used to the social scene, homework and public toilets after the summer break. Hermione had set the Gryffindor fifth years up with a homework plan for 'optimum time preparation. ' she wouldn't let any of them forget that this was the year that decided their lives. For Harry the best part of the next week was that_ his _life was free of drama, for once he found himself surrounded by other people's problems.

To everyone's surprise, and most people's delight, Nikki and Arden had been semi successful in their crusade against Flinch. The entire Gryffindor common room had crowded around them on Thursday night to hear about the meeting with Dumbledore. Initially they had given the list and accompanied stories to McGonagall, but she had taken one look at it and marched them both to the stone Gargoyle. When they had been spotted being taken by a very stern looking McGonagall to the headmaster's office, everyone had assumed that they would be intimately acquainted with the caretaker for the rest of the year. However it seemed that Dumbledore found the whole thing more amusing then harmful.

"Did the Twinkle leave his eyes?" Asked Fred

"What?" said Nikki, looking at him condescendingly for interrupting her in the middle of her story.

"If the twinkle left his eyes it's always a sign that you went too far." Explained George.

"Well, I don't think it did?" Said Arden in, more of a question then a statement. "I mean at the end of the meeting he winked at us."

"Defiantly a good sign." Affirmed the twins in union.

Nikki looked deflated now that the end of her story had been told. There was no suspense in their punishment if everyone knew about the Headmasters good natured wink at the end of the meeting. But she continued on anyway. " He said that he would look over our proposals and that he was glad that we had taken such a proactive role in our education, but next time we should just talk to our head of house instead of involving the whole student population. He also dismissed our Saturday detention. McGonagall seemed more upset about it then he did, she assigned us a paper on why it's important to respect authority. "

"She called it a crusade against order and revenge for past detentions by the students." Added Arden.

Most people shrugged off McGonagall's worry's. It was Dumbledore that really held the power in this type of situation. Everyone knew that she was a stickler for order. Dumbledore's eccentric ways seemed to deal better with a little bit of disarray. Harry always had thought that Dumbledore had probably been the type of teacher to let people try things a million times and a million different ways before hinting at that answer. He was a master at solving puzzles and fostered the same skill in others.

A brand new puzzle had arisen when Hermione had returned back from her meeting with Duggan and declared the teacher "brilliant." Ron had rolled his eyes and used this as ammunition for his more and more frequent bad mood. But Hermione had insisted that it was stage fright that was keeping Duggan back.

"When I spoke to her about the assignment she gave us, she had all these things to say that weren't even in the book! She was confident and impressively animated. In fact in person she seemed incredibly knowledgeable. I think she just gets nervous when she's in front of a big class. She answered all my questions more than adequately."

"Yeah well I don't wanna have to use my free time to meet with a teacher just to get an ok education from a tart two years older than us." Grumbled Ron.

Hermione sighed. "I'm just saying that maybe we judged her too quickly. I looked over that book and I agree with Harry that the course readings are amazing. If she just felt more confident..."

"Yeah well from where I'm standing there's not much chance of that." Said Ron.

Finally losing her temper, Hermione turned to Ron in a flourish. "Honestly, you really need to work on that optimism. What is with you? I'm giving you good news!"

"Yeah well, what good news is that? We're at war, but the minister refuses to do anything about it. We still haven't figured out how to stop Harry's dreams and we have the worst defence teacher ever! Sure she may be ok when you're with her alone but what good is that to us if she does shit all in a classroom? I'm supposed to be optimistic about this?"

Harry noticed that Hermione's eyes seemed a little moist when she replied. "I know things are not ideal, but I refuse to sit here and think things are hopeless. I'm off to the library."

She marched away without a back word glance and Ron deflated. Even though he won the argument he looked like a sore loser. As the days went on Ron had become increasingly moody. Harry personally thought it had something to do with Hermione's prefect duties. The red head grumbled constantly about Hermione not being around to help him with his homework or he complained that when she was around, which seemed like never, all they did was homework. He had even begun to give Neville the cold shoulder. Of course, best friend or no, Harry didn't dare voice his thoughts to Ron. Instead he tried to keep them from each other's throats. Sometimes it felt like third year all over again.

"Would you lay of?" said Harry "I know things aren't great, but you know Hermione: everything has an answer to it. She needs to believe that. We all deal in different ways, you get pissy and she goes to the library and shadows teachers. Do you think you could at least try and put yourself in her shoes before you open your mouth?"

That was the problem with Ron. A life time of trying to get his feelings considered at every family dinner, meant that often he spent too much time getting everyone to hear what he thought and not enough time considering others. Harry knew he had the ability to empathise, but as far as he could tell none of the read headed clan sympathised with others very readily. He had never heard the Weasley twins apologize for a rather embarrassing prank and Ginny was usually talking so loudly to get her thoughts heard that she didn't hear anyone else. Yet when things got at their worst the Weasleys were the first people to help. They just didn't' do subtle. But Harry would never forget the caring from any of the Weasleys after Cedric had died and he would never forget the apology from Ron after the first task. But of course Ron would not consider the other person until things blew up and after a couple of days of cooling off it would occur to him that maybe he had reacted badly.

Ron looked deflated at Harry's comments. "Yeah. I know your right. I've just been in a bad mood lately."

Harry nodded and again applauded his decision not to tell Ron about Percy. He had every reason to believe that Dumbledor would fix things, perhaps he already had, it was already almost two weeks into school. There was no point in worrying Ron. As much as he complained about Percy, Harry knew that deep down he loved his brother. Their ability to love each other despite mistakes or idiosyncrasies had always been something that he had admired in the Weasley family.

"so...err...How are your dreams going?"

Harry shrugged. He had had only one dream since summer where he felt pain, and he had kept that a secret from his friends. Hermione was already worried enough as it was and even Ron seemed scared in his own dysfunctional way. He had taken to placing a silencing charm on his bed before falling asleep. It was more a precaution then anything, as he usually had Voldemort free nights. Harry had personally come to the conclusion that his enemy must not know that he was sending him dreams or he would have sent much more selective about what he let Harry see.

What was worrying Harry more was the re-occurring dreams he was having of the strange land where he was surrounded by forests and time passed slowly. He couldn't explain what it meant and didn't ask Hermione; this seemed like such a minor thing compared with everything else going on in his life. However Harry couldn't help the feeling that he was missing something. He had even dug up his divination book to see what it said about dream symbols. Unfortunately, all the dream symbols seemed to have a sexual connotation. He was pretty sure that he was not longing to sleep with a forest nymph or having a fetish for trees. Maybe he was over reacting. For so long every little part of his world meant life or death he was becoming jumpy over insignificant things.

Ron gave him a searching look. "You know, we have noticed that you've been putting a silencing charm on your bed. Either you're doing a whole lot of wanking or..."

Harry's face had gone red. "I'm not....look...I just want to make sure I don't wake the whole dorm up if I have a dream. Everything's fine."

"Fine if you don't want to talk about it, then I just might have to enrol help from Hermione."

"You mean if she's still talking to you?" Said Harry, with a roll of his eyes. "Seriously Ron, No backup needed. I'm fine."

Ron looked sceptical. "Alright I won't call her in. But you know that even if she swore never to talk to me again she would reconsider if I told her there was something wrong with you."

Ron sounded a bit bitter about that. "She would care if something was wrong with you too, you know."

"No she wouldn't. She would probably say that a prick like me deserves what I get. But that's alright."

To Harry it sounded like that was not alright, but since he was not being completely honest with his friend himself he decided not to push it. The truth was that things were not fine. Sirius had written him back as if nothing was wrong, although Harry supposed it was no one's fault but his own if his godfather did not know what was happening in his life. For some reason Harry kept hoping that his godfather would guess that something was wrong. Maybe he expected Sirius to at least write him about some of his own problems, rather than pretend that they were a happy family and that there was no war.

All his anxieties revolved around the war. Lately the thing that had been most concerning him was his magic. Since the incident with Seamus Harry had been jumpy about his magic. He did as little amount of magic as possible outside of class. Hermione had made a list of spells for him to try, but they hadn't had time to do it yet. But if he wasn't able to control his magic how was he going to be able to defend himself from Voldemort? How was he going to be able to defend anyone from himself? It was all so confusing.

"Come on I still have to finish the potions homework. Do you understand what it's saying on page 25? Cuz I'm lost."

That weekend they were finally able to find time to practice spells. Hermione wanted to be there to observe Harry's spellmanship, so they had to organize things around her schedule. She had a prefects meeting and rounds on Sunday, which meant she had to do all her homework on Saturday, which meant they were awake incredibly early to get some spell work in before homework. Harry was still working the fuzz out of his brain as they walked toward the empty classroom Hermione had chosen. Ron hadn't even bothered to change out of his pj's. The red head usually stayed in his sleep wear on until lunch on Saturday, anyway. Ron was all for the maximum amount of sleep on the weekend.

When they got to their destination Hermione handed Harry the list of spells and charms she had made. "I've organized them from simple to difficult. I would like to see how the range of difficulty affects the power of the spell. I've asked Flitwick for the feathers from first year for you to practice on."

"What about the spells that I need to do on a person?" asked Harry, looking at the list and noting that she had 'stupefy and 'petrificus totalus' written in her neat handwriting near the end of the list.

"Then you use Ron."

That seemed to wake up his friend rather quickly." Wait I didn't agree to that! Did you see Seamus after Flitwicks class. I mean sure he was fine and everything but he did need a night in the hospital wing."

"Honestly Ronald." Said Hermione, "How can you not trust Harry? Everything will be fine."

"If you trust him so much why don't you let him cast spells on you?" shot Ron

Hermione's cheeks went pink. "Oh, just shut up and stand still so Harry can aim properly."

Feeling a bit despondent Harry began casting. It turned out that Ron did have a cause for concern. Certain spells went normally and others were more powerful then the norm leading to bad consequences'. Ron had claimed that the tickling charm was much more intense than usual but other than that he had avoided calamity. The feathers had not been so lucky. Some of them had exploded; others had simply done the spell more intensified than normal. Hermione diligently marked down all the reactions on her parchment.

By the end of the list Harry was exhausted. Two hours of spell work was always wearing, but the emotional anxiety of possibly hurting one of his friends made him want to crawl back into bed and sleep. Hermione was reviewing the results and Ron had put two desks together so he could lie on them.

"Well I think that we can conclude that your powers are growing." Hermione said slowly. "I'll have to read up on how people come into their powers."

Ron let out a groan; he had hit his head on a chair. "No you won't. It's a well known fact that Wizards come into their powers gradually, until their of age."

"Are their exceptions to this rule?" asked Hermione

"Not generally. Unless there was some kind of suppressant charm done, but even that normally comes off gradually."

Hermione looked at Harry in concern. "Someone could have put you under a suppressant charm, to suppress your magical power. It is possible; you have a lot of people that would want you to be less powerful."

Harry felt his gut clench, ever since the age of eleven when he had entered the Wizarding world he had defined himself by his magic. It was what made his different then the Dursley's and it was what made him famous even within the wizarding world. For someone to tamper with his most valuable procession scared the shit out of him.

Hermione clearly saw the panic in his face. "Don't worry just yet. I'll do some research and it might not be that at all. Now, have either of you started on the transfiguration paper due next week?"

Ron let out another groan.

The weekend went from bad to worse, quicker then Harry could have imagined. Hermione did some reading up on the subject of magical ability and Ron had been right: Magic came in gradually over time. Children did do accidental magic when they were younger, but once school started that evened out unless under strong emotional distress. Essentially they couldn't discard the possibility of a magical suppression charm. Hermione had tried to get him to go to Dumbledore about it, but Harry was having none of it. As far as he was concerned the headmaster had bigger problems and telling him that Harry might be having problems with his magic would just make the old man go into heart failure. He had assured her that he would tell Sirius, but he had no plans to really do so. If the headmaster had problems, then at least he had a coping ability, something that his Godfather did not have.

On Sunday, Ron was in a horrible mood and Harry didn't have the motivation to talk him out of it. They didn't see Hermione all day. Ron spent most of the day insisting that he wasn't able to do any work without her. When 10 pm arrived and she and Neville still had not come back from rounds the red head's ears were hot enough to cook bacon. Harry threw down his exploding snap cards and announced that he was going to bed, really if he wasn't having fun what was the point of staying up?

When he came out of the bathroom Ron was pulling on his pjs muttering about 'having a life outside of waiting for _her_.' Harry didn't bother asking and quickly pulled the curtains to his bed.

He was woken around 11 to the sound of yelling. The silencing charm kept people from hearing him, but he could hear everything going on in the dorm. Immediately in alert mode, Harry jumped out of bed with his wand at the ready. To his dismay it was Ron yelling at Neville. Dean and Seamus both seemed to be in the midst of getting ready for bed and looked at a loss about what to do: neither were close friends with Neville or Ron.

"What the hell is going on?"Yelled Harry over the fray "I was sleeping!"

"Neville_ just_ got in from rounds with Hermione!" screamed Ron

"We were doing rounds." Said Neville slowly as if he was talking to Crabbe or Goyle.

"Oh Sure you were!" Said Ron sarcastically " Look, three of my brothers were prefects I know how much time you have to put into it. You can't fool me. I know that you're trying to seduce her!"

Harry's mouth dropped open and he heard the other two dorm mates burst into laughter.

Neville Rolled his eyes, Ron must have repeated himself. "I'm _not_, but even if I was why would that be _your_ business? "

Harry had never seen Neville so firm, it was clear that this was not the same clumsy boy from first year. Apparently the others had noticed too, because he head Dean whisper 'go Neville' to Seamus.

Ron looked about ready to breathe fire. "I'm her friend, so I'm only looking out for her."

Neville snorted. "Friend, _Right. _Look here, don't take out your sexual frustration on me because Hermione would rather spend time doing rounds then prying the homework answers from your thick head!"

There was a silence in the room. Everyone was amazed that Neville had had said such a thing. And then Ron lunged at him.

Something inside Harry was exploding. A power was working its way out and he had no control over it. Ron and Neville were thrown into their respective beds so hard that the room shook and part of Neville's canopy fell off.

Harry took a moment to process that neither one had been hurt before nodding. "Shut up and go to bed!" Maybe his magical 'explosions' would come in handy...

It was an unspoken agreement between all the fifth year boys then next morning that none of them would speak about what happened the night before. For Harry this was fine because it was already old news. He had had another dream from Voldemort. It hadn't been anything special, just Voldemort Curcioing Wormtail for not being able to get back into Hogwarts, but Harry had felt every curse. Ron was too pre-occupied with his fight with Neville to notice that his best friend looked like death warmed over. However, Hermione knew that something was wrong the second that they sat down at breakfast.

"What's the matter?" Said Hermione, when they both looked at her questioningly she elaborated. "Ron, you look depressed and Harry, you look like death warmed over."

Harry glanced at Ron. He knew that his friend would not tell Hermione why he looked so bad so he decided to take the fall. "I had another Voldemort dream last night, and I felt every curse."

Both his friends gave him an accessing look. Hermione leaned forward as if to hug him. Harry shrugged her away.

As physical contact was no longer an option Hermione moved onto solider ground. "Was there anything different about this dream? Anything at all?"

Harry shook his head. "He was just crucioing Wormtail over and over for not being able to get into Hogwarts. He was sad that he wouldn't be able to torture me."

She thought for a moment before a light seemed to go on in her eyes. "I need to go to the library. See you later."

Her breakfast lay forgotten and the two boys were left to mull over their own respective troubles.


	8. A break from the routine

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 8: A break from the routine 

Harry and Ron rushed to Transfiguration. Without Hermione there to tell them when they had to leave, neither had noticed that people were leaving until the great hall was almost empty. They made it to class just in time. Luckly, everyone had claimed a seat in that class since second year and they both were able to slide into the last open desk. McGonagall frowned at them.

"Where is Ms. Granger?"

Both boys lifted their heads from their frantic search for Quills and parchment to glance in front of them at Hermione's normal seat. To their shock it was empty. Hermione had never been late for a class, except for third year when she spent too much time trying to dodge herself. She had also never missed a class in all four years at Hogwarts. But it seemed that the old adage "Never say never" would prove to be true once again.

"I don't know." Said Harry, who finally got over his shock enough to notice that his teacher was giving him a rather severe glare. "She's never late."

McGonagall gave him a dry look. "That would be why I'm asking Mr. Potter."

The rest of the lesson proceeded as normal, except for the fact that Hermione never showed. By the end of the lesson they had all gained a healthy respect for her appearance in class. Without Hermione every person knew that they had to rely solely on their own notes. Even the head of house seemed frustrated when there was no one readily available to answer all her questions. The silence after the teacher asked a question had seemed long enough and loud enough to make Harry consider the distance and atmosphere of travelling through empty space. Draco Malfoy seemed to be the only student who understood the readings. It was a double period, which meant that the class was double the tension but it also meant that lunch break followed class. And Harry was never so sure that he needed a break in all his life.

The Gryffindor fifth years all made their way to the great hall together. Although the conversations were varied amongst them, they all hinged on one thing: Hermione. Where was she? Was she healthy? And who could explain what they just learned in class back to them when they did their homework?

To everyone's further shock, the answer to two of those questions was sitting in the great hall eating a sandwitch, sprinkling crumbs over the largest book many of them had ever seen.

"Hermione!"

She turned at the shouts. "Yes?"

"You missed transfiguration!" Harry noted that the whole class said that in semi-unity.

The girl in question blushed slightly. "Yes well, I got a bit caught up in some research..." When they all simply stared she continued. "Can I borrow one of your notes?"

Harry mechanically handed over the notes from the previous class that he had not taken the time to put into his back pack. After all the years he had used her class notes, she had more than earned the right to use his. Hermione pursued them and then clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth. "No wonder you always borrow my notes. You hand writing is horrible and you never seem to finish a sentence. I should teach you how to take proper notes."

The last sentence unfroze the class of hungry students. Their friend was not possessed by an alien. She was not being taken over by the dark lord or polyjuiced. She was simply acting strange, which was no cause for delaying lunch.

Just as they were all sitting down to enjoy the roast beef sandwitches from the kitchens, a shadow came over the table. Professor McGonagall was glaring at her most favoured student. "Where were you during class Ms. Granger? Hogwarts has a strict policy of not missing classes unless sick and you seem to be in fine health."

Hermione didn't seemed too fussed about being scolded by her head of house. In fact, Harry thought she looked rather pleased with herself. "Please, if we go to your office I'll explain everything. It's best if I can bring Harry... and Ron too. But especially Harry."

McGonagall gave her a momentary dead panned look and then nodded. "Very well, come along you three. This should be interesting."

Ron and Harry both gave their sandwitches a sad look before dutifully following. McGonagall was walking about ten steps ahead of her students. Even the sound of her footsteps had a no nonsense attitude about it. Hermione struggled with the large book and her back pack as she tried to keep up with their head of house. Harry had never noticed how tiny she was before, Hermione's personality more than made up for her short stature. Just as he was about to ask her if she needed help, Ron leaned over and plucked the book from her grasp. She looked surprised for a moment and then smiled her thanks. Harry was glad to see that his friend was taking their talk to heart.

McGonagall's office was sparely decorated. Unlike other professors she preferred to have a minimum amount of personal effects in the room. Only her certificate of graduation and some plants decorated the area. This made it all the harder to when she fixed her gaze on her students; there was no other place to look. At the moment her gaze was firmly locked on Hermione, but the student still seemed unconcerned.

"Miss Granger, Please explain to me why you missed my class. It had better be good."

Hermione grabbed the book from Ron's hands excitement shining in her eyes. She placed it on her teacher's desk with a thud that disjointed some neatly folded papers. As she flipped through pages as she spoke. "As I'm sure you know Professor Harry has been having some very painful dreams where he sees the events happening to Voldemort. The catch is that sometimes he feels the pain from the curses that Voldemort casts, but other times he doesn't feel anything. I've been reading up on curse scars and of course there was no mention of a phenomenon like this ever happening. I was stumped until Harry said something this morning. He said that Voldemort was thinking about how he would like to torture him. Unwittingly He was getting his wish and Harry was feeling everything. My theory is that whenever Voldemort thinks about hurting Harry and Harry is present in the 'dream' then he feels the pain. If Voldemort is concerned with his own things, then there is no pain. This wouldn't happen with a normal curse scar, but Harry doesn't have a curse scar, he has a bond scar. This book is on bonds and it describes instances where couples get a bond done so that the other person can 'see inside their head'. Except no one wants someone to have constant access to their thoughts, so there's a default that they can only see into each other's mind when they think about that person. It says here that sometimes they can telepathically send feelings of love to their significant other. Harry and Voldemort share a similar bond, so Voldemort is able to send Harry feelings of pain through his scar. Therefore the scar is not the mark of a curse, but of a bond. This also explains Harry's ability to speak parsltounge, because bonded couple's sometimes share magical abilities. Voldemort probably would have had a scar too, if he had not lost his body that night. The bond was unintended and incorrectly done, so sometimes Harry can access Voldemorts thoughts when he is not thinking about Harry."

Mcgonagall took the book from Hermione and studied the page. "Mr. Potter does this theory explain everything that has been happening to you recently?"

Harry gave a disjointed nod of his head. It explained everything, but that didn't mean he had to like it. How gross was it to think that he had a bond with his enemy? Did this mean that Voldemort could look into his head? Harry voiced his last question to his teacher. To everyone's surprise she referred it to Hermione.

Hermione bit her lip. "Well it is possible, but we can't be sure. I don't think that Voldemort is aware of the bond yet or he would surely be...exploiting it. However the bond was never completed or done properly as I said earlier. Harry was too young to be able to reciprocate therefore Harry might only have access to Voldemorts mind, but not the other way around. In short: I don't know."

"This is very compelling and I will refer it to the headmaster." Said Mcgonagall with a proud look at her student.

"But does this mean that there's nothing we can do to stop the painful dreams?" Asked Ron

Hermione nodded. "Unfortunately there's nothing to be done to stop the dreams. Normally the other person has the ability to safe guard their thoughts by not thinking about their bonded, but it is a voluntary thing and for life. We can't ask Voldemort to stop thinking about Harry, because he would enjoy causing him pain. The ministry monitors bonds very closely precisely because of the inability to block the other person out. But at least we know what is causing the dreams."

Harry went from feeling happy about discovering the cause to his problem, to feeling fatalistic in about one minute. He had hoped that someone would know a way out of a bond like this. But apparently there was no 'off' button. If it was a bond of love that would be fine, but a bond of hate could only result in pain.

Mcgonnigall seemed to read his mind. "Don't be too upset yet. Mr Potter. In my books this is still a theory. A compelling theory, but a theory none the less. If it does prove to be true the headmaster and other keen minds from the order will no doubt be researching day and night to find a way to close the connection. Now, Miss Granger while I appreciate your research skills and respect your desire to help a friend the fact remains that you still missed my class. I cannot condone skipping a class, the research could just as easily been done at lunch. If you really had felt that it could not have waited, you are far enough in my class that I would have given you a library pass had you asked. Therefore I am assigning you a week's worth of detentions. Please be here at eight sharp. You are dismissed."

Ron looked like he was about to protest, but Hermione stepped on his foot. "I understand Professor. I'll see you tonight."

For a girl who prided herself on never getting into trouble, Harry thought that Hermione took her detentions very well. Then again, he supposed that Hermione was always the type of person who advocated taking responsibilities for ones actions.

As the month progressed everything seemed to speed up for Harry. Between Hermione's Prefect duties, his Quidditch practice and homework Harry felt that he barely spent any quality time with his friends. He felt as if he had entirely too much to think about but no time to spend thinking. Finding out he had a bond with Voldemort and not a simple curse scar was certainly a cause for worry, but he never found time to read a book on bonds that Hermione had mail ordered for him. His polite and cheerful letters to his godfather became an obligatory chore that he did about once a week. He was unsettled by the now re-occuring dream of a far away land, but Harry simply brushed it off in his waking hours. His head felt fuzzy and overwhelmed by things to think about. Every day the trio would scan through the news paper looking for signs that Voldemort was on the move. At least he didn't have to worry about his marks in defence anymore, but instead now he needed to pay more attention in history of magic. He felt as if he was coasting through each day in a world of monotony and normalcy, when reality was scary and adventurous. Simply put Harry felt lost.

Unfortunately for him the feeling seemed to be going around. With each class Duggan got a little better at her job, however she always retained that frazzled and 'new' character trait. Few people paid attention when she talked and she was becoming increasingly desperate to keep the students interested. About three weeks into the semester Seamus had started a pool of bets about when their teacher would finally crack under pressure and yell at the class. With one week left to Halloween, they still had yet to see her scream, but a twitch that had developed to the right of her mouth assured people that they would not be waiting much longer.

Even Harry's Friends all exhibited confusion about their place in the world. Ron's miserable moods had continued, although he was getting better about bothering Hermione. He could be found sitting bored in the common room when Hermione was doing rounds and Harry was playing Quidditch. Ron's brothers were not much better. The twins got a letter from their mother every week about working hard in their studies, but everyone could see that they spent more time whispering about a joke shop then on homework. Harry had overheard them talking about how they were going to break the news to their mom that they had no desire to work for the ministry like she wanted them too. Of course they had been telling her for years, but being told something and hearing something were two vastly different things. Hermione was also showing signs of stress. In Harry's opinion this had more to do with the war then with anything to do with school. She had yet to tell her parents, in detail, about the war in the wizarding world. As of now nothing had happened, but the thought was always lingering in everyone's mind what would happen when Voldemort finally did decide to act.

Happily a few days before Halloween something happened that renewed Harry's faith in the light side. Breakfast was progressing like any other: Ron was sleeping over his eggs, the Weasley twins were scheming down the table and Hermione was reviewing her homework from the night before. Harry was busy scanning the daily prophet for any news, but it seemed like nothing interesting had happened in the past days.

The mail came just on time. Harry didn't receive anything, but he jumped up when Errol landed in his plate. He quickly threw down his newspaper and righted the owl. The Birds feathers were rumpled and he looked a bit disoriented. Harry unattached the letters from Errol's leg and threw them across the table to Ron. His friend had been staring into space, but seemed to jolt awake suddenly.

"Sorry, mate." Said Ron as he flicked egg off his letter. He tossed another letter to each twin and his sister. "Errol's a real mess, I'll definitely tell mom in my next letter to get another bird because this one is becoming a health hazard. He's lived way longer..."

Rons eyes which had been reading the letter from his parents stopped and he dropped his fork. Hermione turned at the unusual sound of Ron's cutlery hitting his plate. Harry leaned across the table and stared at the letter as if he could read through paper. He had made out what he thought was a b and an e, when Ron began to speak.

"I don't believe it. Percy has finally decided to stop being such a prick!"

"What?!" Harry was pretty sure that Hermione had spoken at the same time as him.

"Mom says that last night Percy showed up at the house. It says here that, and I quote, 'he was very sad about his behaviour and apologized more times than I could count. He recognizes that he turned his back on the family and he wants to rebuild our relationship.' I can't believe that he's gone back to them just like that. Something must have happened." Ron looked at the paper as if he was attempting to read between the lines.

Inwardly Harry was smiling. He knew that Dumbledore would pull through. It was just a matter of time until the imperius curse was taken off. Of course, Percy had wanted to come back to his parents once he was free. Everything was working out perfectly for once. The Weasley family was reunited, and Harry was looking forward to never seeing Mrs. Weasley so upset again. He knew that if anyone deserved to be appreciated by their children it was the Weasley matron.

The Twins and Ginny had wandered over while Ron was taking and they seemed to all be partaking in the same amazement.

"She even wrote that Percy's moving back in for a while." Said one of the twins.

Hermione looked confused by their blank looks. "But That's wonderful! Your parents must be so happy."

Ginny nodded at her. "It's great; it's just very...unpercyish. Percy normally holds out for the longest time when he's mad about something. The rest of us Weasleys all just yell a little and then it's over with, But Percy normally holds a grudge forever, even if he was wrong. Once he took my doll and so I told mum and he got punished for it. But he didn't talk to me for the next month because I told on him."

"I think you should stop questioning so much." Said Harry "Maybe something did happen? But maybe he just realized how good he had it? Don't question a good thing."

Ron was smiling a little bit by now. Despite putting on a good show, everyone knew that Ron had missed his brother. "Yeah I guess you're right."

The twins seemed to be having a silent conversation between themselves without words. "We better get going" said one "Class in 5 minutes" said the other.

Hermione jumped up when they said that. "We have to hurry, We'll barely make it to transfiguration on time."

Ron and Harry followed dutifully at a slower pace. Ron folded the letter carefully and placed it in his bag. Harry knew that his friend would probably want to read it over slowly on his own.

They made it to class just on time. McGonagall gave them a glare, but otherwise didn't comment. Harry pulled out his notes are prepared for a lengthy lesson. They had a double period today and Transfiguration was not his best subject. Something about completely changing one material into another still seemed to cause problems for the muggle in him. He could never get used to the idea of a pin cushion suddenly becoming a porcupine.

McGonagall seemed impatient that class and the whole class could sense it. Sometimes it was ok to joke around with the Gryffindor head of house, but today was not the day. Her hair was pulled back in an even tighter bun than normal. "We have a lot of things to go through today so let's get started. Today we will be looking at the theory of Melinda dolt. For the hundredth time Mr. Finnegan she was a smart women and not in fact a 'dolt'. Five points from Gryffindor. Seeing as you all did your homework for this class, can anyone explain this theory to me? Yes, Miss. Granger."

Hermione sat forward in her seat eagerly. "Melinda Dolt's theory is that, but using air as an additional material you can transfigure items smaller then the item you have into something larger. However to do this you must fist solidify the air within the designated space and then change the item. This was a revolutionary new idea, because it means that the matter in an item can be expanded through transfiguration."

"Very good Miss Granger. 10 points to Gryffindor. Before Dolt discovered this method of transfiguration was very limited. In order to transfigure something you had to take time to measure the item so that you would know that it had the matter you needed. Of course this took time and thought. Until this year we have been transfiguring items that have the same amount of matter. Meaning that if, for example, you were transfiguring a feather into a pin, which are clearly not the same size, however a feather has the density in order to be transfigured into a smaller item." McGonagall's eyes moved around the class to see if everyone was listening to her. She stared for a moment at two Slytherin girls, before continuing. "The theory for this type of transfiguration is often hard to understand for students. Many students have trouble understanding how the matter comes into being. To put it simply: you conjure it. Therefore this spell has two parts, Conjuring the material and transfiguring it. Does anyone have any questions? No. Well then let me give you a tip before you begin today: The air is a matter; use it to become part of your item."

As the teacher wrote the incantation on the board Harry groaned. He didn't really feel like attempting anything difficult today. He hadn't gone to release magic with his friends in a few days. Next to him Ron was grumbling about the theory, he hadn't finished his homework so the short lecture was far from a full explanation. What the hell did she mean about air? It was all way to abstract for Harry's sleep deprived mind to understand at the moment.

The teacher moved around the room placing feathers in front of everyone. McGonagall seemed to do everything for a reason. She had carefully used the example of the feather and the pin so that her students could associate it with what they were doing today, unfortunately Harry's brain was having trouble grasping this. He stared blankly at the medium sized feather in front of him.

"Today you will be focusing on transfiguring the feather in front of you into an arrow. It might interest you to know, in the past certain fighters would carry feathers with them so that in the case of an emergency they could strike the opponent with an arrow. The incantation is _Saggittaeomous. _Please begin."

Ron was glaring at his feather. "That sounds ridiculous to me! The only way they would need an arrow was if they lost their wand, but you would need a want to turn the feather into an arrow."

"Mr. Weasley,." Said McGonagall, as she circled the room. "I suggest you concentrate less on ancient fighting techniques and more on improving your own skills."

Harry looked at Hermione and noticed that she hadn't gotten the spell yet. He was sure that it would be a long class. Next to him Ron was waving his wand but muttering how 'she brought it up'.

Harry fixed his gaze on his feather and decided to try the spell. He loosened his hand a bit a practiced the wand motion before moving on to both the incantation and the wand movements. So far no one in the class had been successful so he didn't have much hope as he raised his wand.

Suddenly he felt it in him. Magic, just waiting to be let out. Magic more powerful than he had ever felt before. It was like a bubbling cauldron was in him ready to boil over. Harry knew that he should stop the spell, but he couldn't seem to. His hand seemed disconnected from the small part of his brain screaming for him to stop. He watched in a daze as his hand came down and he heard his mouth form the words to the incantation. But what emerged from his wand was certainly not what McGonagall had intended. There was a buzzing in his ears and a cackle of electricity near his right hand, right before Harry Potter's world exploded.

Thanks for reading! Please Review!


	9. Explosion

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 9: Explosion 

The first thing that Harry noticed upon waking was the acidic smell of cleaning fluid. The smell reminded him of the stench of the cleaning fluids that his aunt petunia kept in the cupboard under the stairs. The second thing he noticed was the noise, so loud that he thought that he might have fallen into one of Dudleys videos games. It sounded like everyone around him was screaming, or moaning or crying. Alarmed he opened his eyes.

He was lying in one of the middle beds in the hospital wing. He had commented to Madame pomphrey a couple of times that this was one of the best beds because of the view. From this angle he had a nice view outside, but he could also see who was coming to the hospital wing. Additionally if he leaned a little to the left he could peak into Madame Pomreys office. But today the view was horrible.

Surely the hospital wing was not meant to hold so many people? Harry had never seen it so full. There was a student on every bed, and some others were sitting on chairs waiting to be seen to. Many healers were running around with potions in hand and a wand waiting to cast a healing spell. He could see another crowd of people standing near the entrance to the hospital wing. With all the hustle and bustle Harry couldn't even find Madam Pomphrey. He started to look more closely at who was injured. To his shock Harry realized that he recognized every person lying in a hospital bed.

Seamus finnigan and Dean Thomas were both to his right. Seamus was moaning and clutching at his stomach. Even more chilling was that Dean didn't seem to be responding to the healer attempting to revive him. On the other side of the room he could see pansy crying and clutching at her arm. In a bed next to her Draco Malfoy was propped up on pillows and demanding a healer give him something to stop the pain. Harry could hear what he was sure was Lavender Browns voice crying and calling to Pavarti. Perhaps most disconcerting of all was the view of Professor McGonagall being tended to by two healers across from him.

It was as if war had broken out, but Harry had missed it. He searched his brain to find out what had happened. The last thing he remembered was being in Transfiguration class. They were learning some hard new theory and he was meant to try a spell. With a sick feeling, Harry recalled the building of magic in his gut and the explosion he had known would come out. Had he caused all this mayhem?

Out of nowhere a healer appeared by his side. It was not anyone that Harry recognized, but at the moment he didn't really care.

"Hello Mr. Potter. I'm so glad that you're awake. Do you feel any pain anywhere?"

Harry shook his head. "No. What happened?"

The healer frowned and wrote something on his clip board. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"Practising spells in transfiguration class."

He nodded. "A little bit of memory loss is to be expected. It appears what happened was the some sort of magical....explosion, for the lack of a better word, occurred during your transfiguration class. No one knows why yet, but I'm sure that the headmaster will do a thorough investigation on the subject. Unfortunately, everyone in the class was injured. Professor Flitwick heard a commotion and discovered the disaster. Once Madam Promfrey heard how many injured there were she called saint Mungoes for help, I am a healer from saint Mungoes. You seem fine, but I would just like to do a short examination on you."

Harry sat still while the healer poked and prodded him. He waved his wand and had Harry move certain ways to make sure that there was no injury. His mind was reeling. Everyone from his class had been hurt? Where were Ron and Hermione? He could spot practically everyone but them.

"Everything seems to be in order Mr. Potter. You should consider yourself lucky, you're the first patient I've seen who didn't have some sort of injury. If you're feeling fine, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Normally I would have you stay for observation, but as you can see we're running short on beds. The hospital wing is not made to handle such a high capacity of students. I am going to ask that you come in tomorrow morning for another short examination, just to be safe. How does that sound?"

Harry nodded. "That's fine. I was wondering if you could tell me where two of my friends are? Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger? I'd like to see them."

The healer looked torn. "We are not permitting visitors at the moment, there's enough people crammed in here already you understand. However I can go find out how they are doing and tell you."

He left before Harry could object. He could do nothing but sit and wait for the healer to come back with news of his best friends. In the mean time, he took in more of his situation. The hospital wing was not quite as loud as it had been before his exam. Many people had now been given pain medication or a sleeping potion and healers were mending them as they slept. Harry was thankful that Draco Malfoy was asleep; he was not in the mood to speak to his nemesis.

Faster than Harry thought, the healer was back with Madame Promfrey in tow.

"Harry I'm so glad that you're doing well." Said Madame Pomfrey. There was a tenderness about her that was unusual, Harry supposed it came with seeing to many students in a bad way. "Mr. Franklin tells me that you will be able to leave and clear up some space."

Harry nodded. "Ummm, Yeah. Madame Promfrey how are Ron and Hermione?"

To his surprise the matron hesitated. "Unfortunately, I do not have good news for you. It seems that they were both close to whatever caused the explosion. This means that they received some of the worst injuries. But don't worry too much, we have some of the best healers tending to them. We expect them to make a full recovery, but it might take a little longer then everyone else."

Harry felt his heart sink. Ron and Hermione were clearly not doing well. What did it mean that it would take longer for them to recover? How much longer? Harry had never been so sure that he needed his friends.

"Everyone's parents have been contacted of course." Said the matron gently, seeing his distress. " Ronald Weasleys brothers and sister are waiting outside for more news. Perhaps you could give them a message for me?"

Harry nodded. He didn't have the strength to answer verbally.

"Tell them that Mr. Weasley has been stabilized. They are still monitoring him closely, because of massive blood loss, but his condition should improve shortly. He is still unconscious, therefore he feels no pain. Both Mr. Wealsey and Miss. Granger have been moved to a private room as they are the most serious cases." She paused, as if she didn't know what else to say. "Professor Dumbledore has also said that he would like to see you in his office. They are trying to figure out what happened, and you are the first student that is well enough to be released."

Harry felt rung dry. The last thing he wanted to do was see Dumbledore. Maybe he knew that Harry caused the explosion and wanted to have him expelled? Well if that was the case serves him right for hurting Ron and Hermione. "Thanks Madame Promfrey."

"Don't forget to come for your check-up tomorrow Harry."

The moment Harry stepped out of the hospital wing he was ambushed by three red heads. Ginny gave him a hug and the twins patted him on the back.

"We were so worried about you!" Said Ginny. Her eyes were puffy as if she had been crying. "You're the first one out. How are you feeling? What's going on in there?"

He gave them a brave smile. "I'm fine. But Madame Pomfrey did have a message for me to give you."

After he had relayed the message, neither the twins nor Ginny reacted as he thought they would. The Twins were smiling again and Ginny dropped into a nearby chair with a sigh of relief. Harry distantly noticed that someone had gathered some desks and chairs outside the hospital wing doors to make a small waiting room for friends and family.

"Umm...Guys this is bad news." Reminded Harry.

The twins shook their heads in union. "You were out for almost an hour." Said one

"A lot went on during that time."

"It's good to hear..."

"That he's stable now."

"It was touch and go for a while."

To keep from falling down, Harry sat next to Ginny. Madame Pomfrey had told him it was bad, but Harry had never imagined that his best friend could have died. Ginny seemed to sense what he was feeling and patted him on the back. "It's ok Harry. Ron will be fine now."

Suddenly he felt like he needed a distraction. Something to get his mind off things. Luckily, he had the perfect excuse. "I need to go. Apparently Dumbledore asked to see me. I'll come back after to see how their doing."

The others wished him good luck as he made his way to the headmaster's office. The headmasters office was not very far from the hospital wing, and Harry found himself standing in front of the stone gargoyle in less than two minutes. Luckily Dumbledore kept with his theme of candies and Harry was easily able to guess the password.

Just as he was about to knock on the door, he heard a noise that made him stop.

"Everybody is in an uproar! The prophet is going to do a special edition and the governors are out of their mind with worry for the children. I want to know who did this and I want their head on a platter!"

"Don't you think that you should take a calmer approach to this whole thing, Cornelius?" Said Dumbeldore. There was only one person who Harry know that had that name: The minister of Magic. This couldn't be good.

"You want me to be calm that a classroom of students was blown up? Are you insane? This is disastrous! I'll call the Aurors and have them begin investigating immediately."

"I don't wish to have the aurors in my school. I believe that the staff and myself can deal with this well on our own. You have allowed me the ability to govern this school as I see fit for years. I think I have done a fine job. I assure you that the matter will be investigated."

Harry could visualize the minister sputtering at this suggestion. "Yes _I _have allowed you to run this school for years, and when _I_ see fit _I_ will step in. _I _want a full investigation. I will-"

"I'm sorry but I have to interrupt you Cornelius, but it appears that I have a visitor. Come in Harry."

Harry wiped his hands of his trousers. It was nerve wracking to be caught spying by the headmaster. How long had Dumbledore known that he was there?

The minister was sneering at him. Dumbledore was smiling at him. The contrast was very prominent to Harry's anxious mind. Together these two men probably controlled almost the whole wizarding world. Harry tried to smile at them but he was afraid that he looked constipated.

The headmaster was the first to talk once he sat down. "I'm glad to see that you are feeling better, Harry. You are the first student involved in the incident that is well enough to discuss the events. I thought I might have you in here so that we can begin to understand what has happened. If you can please recount the events of this morning."

Harry glanced at the minister and began to speak. "Well, at first everything was normal. We were learning about Dolts theory. It was pretty confusing actually. And..."

"Mr. Potter get to the point." That was the minister. Dumbledore was still giving him a dreamy smile.

"Alright. Umm...So Professor McGonagall gave us all time to practice the spell. Nobody was really getting it. When I went to do the spell there was this energy in the air and everything...went black after that." Harry shifted in his chair under the stares.

"Mr. Potter is that a confession that you did this?" Asked the minister with an excited glint in his eye. "It would seem that you note that only when you raise your wand does the explosion happen. And now that I come to think of it, it is suspect that you are the only student practically unharmed by the events."

"I think what Harry meant was that just when he went to cast is when the tragedy happened." Amended Dumbledore.

"Yeah. I felt something, but all I was doing was the spell McGonagall had given us." Said Harry

"That's Professor McGonagall to you, Mr. Potter." Corrected Fudge "It still rather sounds like you are admitting that this magic came from you."

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Yelled Harry getting annoyed. In his head he muttered 'on purpose'.

"Tisk, tisk. You have quite the temper young man." Fudge seemed to be getting happier by the minute.

Dumbledore looked less than impressed with Fudge. "I have an idea. Why don't you draw out the seating arrangement for me, Harry? That way we can identify where everyone was at the time of the explosion."

Harry took the quill and paper from the headmaster and quickly sketched the seating arrangements of the transfiguration classroom. Upon looking at the drawing Fudge looked particularly smug. "Well, well. It would seem that all the most seriously injured people were seated close to Mr. Potter. What a surprise."

"Cornelius! You are making completely invalidated insinuations. It is inappropriate! Harry's friends were badly injured. You think that he would do such a thing?" It was only perhaps the second time that Harry had seen Dumbledore get mad.

"Frankly Dumbledore I don't know what this boy is capable of!" Shrieked Fudge. "He has become attention crazed. We still don't have a full understanding of what happened last June. I'm surprised that you trust a word coming out of his mouth!"

"I have told you what happened last June, Cornelius. It is you who refuses to hear it!" The minster put his hands over his ears like a little child hearing something distasteful. But Dumbledore went on: "Voldemort is back!"

"I will not stand here and listen to such ridiculous drivel. Good day Dumbledore. The aurors will be here soon to do a full investigation, not excluding the precious boy who lived."

With an adjustment of his top hat the minister left in a cloud of floo powder. Harry was left speechless. How was it possible that such an idiot got to be minister of magic? The man was completely unreasonable.

Dumbledore sighed. "What an unfortunate situation. Harry I need you to tell me the truth. Do you think that the explosion came from you? I know that you have been having problems with your magic lately."

Harry bit his lip. He didn;t even think to ask how Dumblefore knew that he had been having problems with his magic, Dumbedore knew everything. "I think it might have been me. I really didn't do it on purpose! I would never do something like that! I just went to do the spell and this magic just came out of me. I couldn't control it."

"It's alright." Said the headmaster. "I knew that you were having issues with your magic, but I failed to put in place a resource for you to learn to control that magic. Unfortunately, I fear that this will put us in a bad position. If the minister finds any evidence to link you to the crime he will exploit it. The law is very clear that any individual who is a risk to the school must be removed from the school."

"So What would happen then? Would I go back to the Durselys?" said Harry, his heart sinking.

To his relief Dumbledore was shaking his head. "That would be unlikely. In the case that Fudge discovers you caused this he will take over. If he finds the crime to be intentional then you would probably go to prison. In the case that it was found unintentional you would probably go to saint Mungoes for training."

In Harry's opinion that would be worse than going to the Durselsy! At least with the Durselys he knew what to expect! And Fudge didn't seem to like him any better than Vernon Dursley. He was sure that the minister would find a way to torment him.

"Harry I am not telling you this to alarm you, although I can see that it has." Said Dumbledore. "I am telling you this to arm you for what is to come. I will do everything in my power to prevent you being taken from Hogwarts. However I am not above the law and the minister is outside my influence right now. I just want you to be prepared."

Harry's mouth was hanging open. He felt anything but prepared.

"There is also another matter that I wished to talk to you about. I have been doing research on the information that Miss Granger found on your scar. I will continue to research extensively until this point; however we have found nothing to disprove her hypothesis."

Wonderful, thought Harry, so now I'm being taken by the ministry and I have a bond with Voldemort. " Thanks for trying so hard professor."

Harry spent the rest of the day camped out in front of the hospital wing with the Weasley family. Mrs. Weasley was a complete wreck. No matter how many times that Madame Pomfrey told her that Ron would be alright, she refused to calm down until her son reached consciousness again. The two Weasley parents were allowed in to see their son, but none of the others had been allowed into the hospital room. The Hospital wing was simply too crowded with all the parents of the injured children trying to get in. Someone had put up a sign up sheet and each parent was allowed one hour with their child before being asked to leave.

Harry felt badly for the Grangers who were unable to see Hogwarts, and therefore unable to visit their daughter. It had never occurred to him before exactly how hard it must be for muggle borns to come to Hogwarts. The Grangers were beside themselves with worry. They went to Hogsmead and took a hotel room so that they could be as close as possible. Every few hours the Weasley family wrote them a letter with an update.

Harry stayed there all day and all evening until Flitwick came by and kicked him out. The dorm room was incredibly quiet with all the other fifth years staying in the hospital wing for observation. The last thought Harry had before he went to sleep was that if he caused the injuries to his friends he deserved what he got.

The next morning Harry woke much later than expected. He had not been able to fall asleep until the wee hours of the morning, when fell asleep due to exhaustion. The notice board said that all classed had been cancelled for the day and with no one in the dorm room but him, he had not been woken up until 9:30am. Harry rushed to get dressed and see how his friends were doing.

The first thing he noticed was that the hospital wing was much quieter then the day before. No more parents were camped outside the entrance and the small waiting room looked as if a herd of angry elephants had come by. He poked his head into the hospital wing and noticed that everyone seemed to be calm. Many families with sitting around their Child's bed. Some beds were empty and Harry assumed that they had been discharged by Madame Pomfrey.

Before he had a chance to even wonder where he should go the healer from the day approached him. Harry searched his memory, but couldn't remember his name. He supposed that the day before too much information had been processed and only vital info. had remained. The man sat him down at an empty bed and eyed him carefully.

"How are you feeling Mr. Potter?"

"I'm fine. I feel normal."

The man pulled out his wand and waved it over his head. His eyes were assessing Harry's body. Finally he shrugged and gave him the clean bill of health.

"Are you allowing visitors now? Can I go see my friends? Ron and Hermione?" Asked Harry in a rush. "Can you tell me anything about their condition?"

The healer looked unsure. "They are out of the woods but it will still be a while before they're healthy again. They woke up this morning, when I last checked in on them their family was there. I really don't want to tire them out..."

Harry put on a kicked puppy look. "Please it would me so much for me to see them. I promise to be really quiet and not disturb them in any way."

The man looked sceptical. "Look your friend had a pretty big family. If a couple of them have left I'll let you go in and visit them."

Well, if the twins had been inside Ron and Hermione probably were a little wiped out. Harry quickly agreed. Luckily for him, it appeared as if Madame Pomfrey had kicked out the Weasley clan for breakfast. When Harry entered the back room only Ginny remained seated between the two patients. Both Ron and Hermione were sleeping; Ginny looked on the verge of sleep as well.

"How are they doing?" Harry whispered, easing himself into one of the hospital chairs.

Ginny started. "Harry! I'm so glad you came, these two have been asking about you. They're both doing a lot better. Madame Pomfrey said that they should be out of here in a week."

"That's great." Harry mentally took inventory of his friends. Both had bandages all over them and some bruises poked of from the places not covered. There were numbers flashing by their beds that looked to be monitoring heart beat and other vital functions. Potions bottles were placed beside their beds with times written on them to be taken. Harry was just happy to see the steady rise and fall of their chests.

"How are your parents?" asked Harry

"Well, they were pretty shook up but once they were able to see Ron they began to calm down. Mom was mothering them so much last night that they almost didn't get any sleep. I think that's why Madam Pomfrey kicked her out to be honest." She was smiling, which made the huge circles under her eyes even more visible.

"Did you get any sleep?" He was beginning to think that they were playing a game of twenty questions.

"Not much." Said Ginny, "We only were allowed into the ward somewhere around 3am. I dosed off a bit but it was not a relaxing sleep for sure."

"I know what you mean; I could barely sleep last night. The dorm seemed to quiet to get any proper sleep in." There didn't seem to be anything else to say. Harry and Ginny sat silently by their friend's beds for the next few minutes. Harry was just relieved that he hadn't caused any long term damage.

After a few minutes a beeping seemed to bring Ginny back to awareness. She moved towards Hermione. "It's time for their next dose of pain meds. Will you wake Ron for me? Thanks."

Harry shook his friend into reluctant wakefulness. It was hard to find a place to touch without irritating a bandage. Ron's eyes were droopy and he winced at the pain from motion, but he managed to smile at the sight of his friend. "Harry! What's been happening?"

Hermione had already received her pain relief potion and was busy trying to sit up. "We were so happy to hear that you were ok. You seriously weren't harmed at all?"she gave him a suspicious look.

"I'm fine. How are you feeling? You guys look like hell." Said Harry, unable to help a smile at the friendly bickering.

"On, We're fine." Said Ron "I reckon that we were out cold for all the unpleasant stuff. This pain medication makes me feel as good as new. Of course that doesn't stop mom from being dead annoying."

"Mom and dad were really worried." Said Ginny with a frown. "you should be nicer to her. You might Have been out of the unpleasant bits but we weren't. You know how they get when one of us is hurt."

Ron made a face.

"What's been going on? Nobody will tell us anything!" Whined Hermione.

"Well." Said Harry, " Fudge had called in the Aurors I heard him fighting with Dumbledore yesterday. Most everyone in the classroom was injured and he's worried about how that looks. You were the most seriously hurt, almost everyone else has been let out by now. All classes have been cancelled for the day, but Transfiguration has been postponed until McGonnagall is better and they find another classroom to have class in."

"That sounds horrible." Said Hermione

"Too bad Malfoy wasn't permanently injured." Muttered Ron.

"Do they have any idea what happened?" asked Hermione, ignoring Ron.

This had been the question that Harry was dreading. His stomach dropped to the floor and he tried to find the words to explain that he had put his friends in their current state. All three of them were looking at him curiously. Harry was sure that his long silence was making them even more interested in what he knew. He rubbed his hands up and down his arms a couple of time and then dropped them at his side.

"You're looking at it." He finally said.

"What?" said Ginny at that same time that Hermione gasped. Ron also looked confused by his response.

"Right now their best guess is that I caused the explosion by losing control of my magic. _I am_ the only one uninjured." Harry explained further.

"Oh no..." Whispered Hermione. "Are you in a lot of trouble?"

Harry shrugged. "I guess. Fudge is out for my blood of course. He wants to send me to Azkaban, but Dumbledore says it's more likely that I'll be sent to Said Mungoes like some nut case! I can't believe it. I didn't do anything. But at least Fudge can't prove anything yet."

"This is horrible! We can't let that happen." Shrieked Hermione "I'll fight for you Harry. Don't worry their has to be some law or something...We'll fix It. I'll vouch for you."

"Thanks Hermione, but if I'm a danger to the school they can take me no questions asked." Said Harry glancing at Ginny and Ron to gage their reaction.

Noticing his glance, Hermione turned on the other two in the room. "What do you two think? Can you think of a way to get Harry out of this?"

Ron and Ginny were looking at each other in a strange way. Finally Ron spoke. "I'm not so sure that we should get Harry out of this. Maybe it's for the best."

Harry was frozen in place. All his fears were coming true. His best friend thought that he deserved what he got. In his head he heard echoes from his uncle yelling that he would never have any friends and that we was a worthless freak who brought misery to whoever he met. Aunt Petunia was screeching in his ear about the pain he caused people.

Hermione seemed to have no such problem, and her yells brought Harry back to the present. "I can't believe you! What kind of friend are you! Harry is not dangerous! Would you like him to be sent to Azkaban! I didn't know that you were so fond of Fudge."

"It's not like that!" Interrupted Ginny. "No offense but you guys are not used to understanding that Magic can get sick. In the muggle world you only have to worry about your mind or your body. In the Wizarding world Magic can get sick too and that's considered very serious. No one thinks that Harry is knowingly being dangerous or some kind of nut job. But maybe he does need to see the healers so that his magic can be cured and things like this explosion don't happen again."

By the time she had finished her speech Harry's voice had come back. There was a ringing in his ears. Magic was what made him. The moment that Harry had learned he was a wizard that was what had defined him, and now they were telling him that his magic was sick! "Oh shut up, it's not like you know anything anyway!" Harry yelled. "I am fine! I am not sick! You two are the worst friends ever. I can't believe that I'm taking advice from some fourth year who can't tell a diary from Voldmort and someone who has hit his head one too many times."

Somewhere in the middle of his speech the ringing in his ears had turned into a beeping. The beeping was accelerating and getting louder. That's when Harry realized that the beeping was one of the machines attached to Ron. Before he had a chance to say another word. Madame Pomfrey and several other healers came running in.

While the other healers took over Madame Pomfrey grabbed Harry by the scruff of the neck and marched him toward the doors. "Mr. Potter I expected better from you. You are now banned from the hospital wing unless you are injured. You could have seriously damaged your friend's recovery. Are you happy now?"

Harry found himself in the middle of an empty corridor, the hospital wing door shut behind him and the healers words ringing in his ears. For a moment he debated going back, consequences be damned, he needed to make things right with Ron. But his anger had not completely left him so he turned to make his way to the great hall. Lunch began at 11:30 and it was now 11:25. But still something about fighting with his friend left him empty inside.

He sat himself amongst Neville, his grandmother and the Wealsey family. Bitterly, he thought that he should enjoy the last time the Wealsey's would talk to him. Everyone was talking about the explosion the day before, and Harry's nerves mounted. Aurors were positioned around the great hall and a small cluster of them were having a heated discussion with the headmaster.

"What's happening up there?" Asked Harry pointing towards the teachers table.

Neville shrugged. "Don't know. The Aurors have been poking around since last night. They closed off the whole transfiguration hallway."

Harry watched as Dumbledore nodded his head, looking resigned. The Auror smiled in satisfaction and motioned something to his men. There was a flurry of motion and Harry found himself grabbed from behind.

"Mr. Potter you are now under Auror custody for endangering the school. We can do this the easy way or the hard way, you choose, but you will be coming with me."


End file.
